Feeling Privileged: The Shame of Whiteness in Caroline, or Change
2017
Abstract Through an analysis of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s
musical Caroline, or Change, this article identifies shame as an affective
response to white privilege that has the political potential to challenge
systemic racism. In contrast to most scholarship on Caroline, or
Change, the article focuses on the character of Rose rather than on
Caroline or Rose’s stepson, Noah. Rose implements a rule to help her
avoid the shame she feels when confronting the socio-economic disparity
between her family and their maid, Caroline. This rule incites the
plot’s conflict, providing the musical a dramatic and political centre
that deserves further analysis. In its analysis of Rose’s shame, this article
offers a theoretical outline of the temporality of shame that differentiates
it from guilt. Doing so, the article illuminates how Caroline,
or Change challenges systemic racism by identifying white privilege as
immanently iterated in the present.
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