Antihumanism in "Richard Wright's Native Son and Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets"- A Naturalistic Reading

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate "Richard Wright's Native Son and Stephen Crane's Maggie" from antihumanist point of view. Antihumanism highlights the role of other factors in leading human life. The methodology that is used in this research is based on Althusser’s antihumanism, his method is evident in his structuralist Marxism, an ideology that rejects reason and free will. That is replaced by misrecognition, capitalism, repression, and interpellation. In " A Girl of the Streets and Native Son", the characters are social outcasts, not because of their free will, but from deterministic situations of their lives. This means that antihumanism functions in determining who they are. This article is going to study "Wright’s Native Son and Crane’s Maggie" in light of ideology of European Naturalism. The findings show that the main characters in both novels live in antihumanist society and they are exposed to its external forces.