Citizen: An American Lyric

by

Claudia Rankine

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Citizen: An American Lyric Characters

The Protagonist (“You”)

The Protagonist (“You”)

Throughout Citizen, Claudia Rankine narrates scenes about an unnamed protagonist whose perspective she crafts using the second-person point of view, using “you” to refer to this unidentified character. At first, this narrative device seems… read analysis of The Protagonist (“You”)

The Speaker

The speaker is the voice that narrates the events that take place throughout Citizen or, more ambiguously, the voice that delivers poetic ruminations about selfhood, racial identity, and virtually everything else that comes up in… read analysis of The Speaker

Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a professional tennis player and a famous figure in both the tennis community and popular culture. Rankine references Williams’s experience as one of the few people of color in the world of… read analysis of Serena Williams

Judith Butler

Judith Butler is a philosopher and public intellectual whose work revolves around gender, politics, ethics, and queer theory. In Citizen, the protagonist attends a lecture given by Butler, where Butler explains that the reason… read analysis of Judith Butler

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was an African American author most famous for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Known mostly for her fiction, Hurston was also a respected filmmaker and anthropologist. What’s more… read analysis of Zora Neale Hurston

Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane is a former professional soccer player. Born in Marseilles, France, he is of Algerian descent, his parents having moved to France before he was born. In the 2006 World Cup, he was ejected… read analysis of Zinedine Zidane

Marco Materazzi

Marco Materazzi is a former professional soccer player. In the 2006 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane headbutted him after Materazzi verbally assaulted him. According to lipreaders who have studied the account, Materazzi hurled racist and anti-Muslim… read analysis of Marco Materazzi

Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin was a black boy who was shot and killed in 2012 when he was only 17 years old. This took place in Sanford, Florida, where Martin was visiting family in a gated community… read analysis of Trayvon Martin

James Craig Anderson

James Craig Anderson was a middle-aged African American man who was killed in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2011 by a young white man who—along with his friends—robbed and beat Anderson before running him over with a… read analysis of James Craig Anderson

Mark Duggan

Mark Duggan was a 29-year-old British black man who was murdered by the London police in 2011. His death led to riots throughout London and England as a whole. In Citizen, the protagonist talks… read analysis of Mark Duggan

Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist and philosopher from the French West Indies. An important figure in post-colonial studies, he wrote about the fraught and racist reception of Algerians in France in the aftermath of the… read analysis of Frantz Fanon

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was a former slave turned activist, abolitionist, orator, and writer. His famous autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, details his experience as a slave, his education, and… read analysis of Frederick Douglass

Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson)

Hennessy Youngman is a fictional persona created by Jayson Musson, a young American man whose YouTube series “Art Thoughtz” serve as tutorials that teach viewers about contemporary art. Rankine references a video in which Youngman… read analysis of Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson)

The Protagonist’s Partner

The protagonist’s romantic partner is a man whose race is never indicated in Citizen. However, he is possibly modeled off of the white visual artist John Lucas, who is Claudia Rankine’s romantic partner… read analysis of The Protagonist’s Partner

Mary Catherine

Mary Catherine is a white girl in the protagonist’s class when she’s still in school. The protagonist refers to her as Mary Catherine because she can’t remember if the girl’s name is Mary or… read analysis of Mary Catherine

Mariana Alves

Mariana Alves is a tennis umpire who made a number of unfair calls against Serena Williams in the 2004 U.S. Open. Exasperated by this injustice, Williams responded to one of these bad calls by waving… read analysis of Mariana Alves

Minor Characters

Maurice Blanchot

Maurice Blanchot was a French writer and philosopher whose work Rankine quotes while discussing the altercation that took place between Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 soccer World Cup.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin was an African American writer who wrote extensively about identity and race. Rankine quotes from his work several times throughout Citizen, calling upon his ideas most extensively when discussing the altercation that took place between Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 soccer World Cup.

Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison was an African American author most famous for writing the novel Invisible Man, which Rankine quotes when considering the altercation that took place between Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 soccer World Cup.

Sister Evelyn

Sister Evelyn is the protagonist’s teacher, who doesn’t notice when she lets Mary Catherine cheat off of her test. This causes the protagonist to wonder if she is perhaps invisible to Sister Evelyn because she is black in a predominantly white space.

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki is a former professional tennis player from Denmark. On a professional tennis court in 2012, she stuffed towels in her shirt and shorts and pretended to be Serena Williams.

Venus Williams

Venus Williams is Serena Williams’s older sister. Like Serena, Venus is also a professional tennis player and one of the sport’s few people of color.

The Protagonist (“You”)

The Protagonist (“You”)