ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper delves into the portrayal of racial injustice in Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay, examining how American society remembers its racial Other, particularly through the prism of mourning and justice. Inspired by the killing of Latasha Harlins, a pivotal event of the LA riots in 1992, the novel explores the enduring impact of this tragedy on the surviving family members in 2019. The narrative weaves the past events of Ava Matthews, a fictional representation of Latasha Harlins, with the present-day death of Alfonso Curiel. It reveals a stark contrast in the treatment of their untimely deaths by the society—some deaths are considered worthy of mourning, while others are overlooked. This study explores the question of whose deaths American society considers worthy of mourning, focusing on the victim narratives of Ava and Alfonso. The exploration of their unmourned deaths is examined in relation to their precarious lives as Black individuals experiencing life as denizens deprived of the civil rights that all people should enjoy equally. Drawing on the mourning theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida, the paper investigates the societal context influencing the decision to mourn or disregard the deaths of the racialized Other. Ava and Alfonso serve as poignant examples of how racial injustices persist even in death. This paper contends that the failure to mourn the death of the racial Other signifies a broader failure to acknowledge and accept the Other as they are—an act of discrimination that perpetuates the Other as eternally marginalized.

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