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Umme Habiba Sajjad Khan

Dr Faiza Zaheer

ENGL525

17 January 2023

Stylistic Analysis of Amiri Baraka’s play Mad Heart (1966)

Introduction

Mad Heart is a play based on purgative ritual written by Amiri Baraka in 1966. The play

involves black characters who have internalized racism and the ones who make great sacrifices

to roll back the cultural and social impacts of white supremacy on African American population.

The Devil Lady exemplifies the white supremacy, Black sister and mother blindly follow white

culture and Black Man and woman embody the revolutionary spirit of Black Population.

Stylistic Analysis of Mad Heart

Play delineates the markedly contrasted position between Devil Lady and Black Man.

Such a contrast is overtly palpable when the first interaction between both the characters is

viewed as initiation-response-feedback which is discussion pattern in Pedagogical stylistics (Hall

239) wherein a character says something, and another says something else in response, giving an

idea about the discussion between the characters (Macrae 262). Devil Lady remarks, “There is

peace” (Baraka 69). To this, Black Man replies, “There is no peace” (69). This exchange lays

bare the intrinsically contrasted position taken by the two characters. Further, it also symbolizes

the two distinct cultures that Devil Lady and Black Man represent. The exaggerated

movement/gestures of the characters as described in the narration of the play provide better
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understanding of the characters’ emotional state for the readers (which might be lacking for the

audience who are watching the play being performed since the movements might not be as

reflective as in the text). The stylistic analysis of the drama is, therefore, important in terms of

understanding the depth of the character. Moreover, there is dramatic irony operating in the play.

When the Devil Lady asserts, “There is beauty” (70), the Black Man retorts, “None that you

would know about” (70). This sets the stage for the audience and readers alike to gather that

Black Man’s idea of beauty deviates from the one propagated by white population. However,

Devil Lady (who is a white woman) is still oblivious of the Black Man’s rebellion. In this way,

Black Man’s speech act has much communicative significance vis a vis his revolutionary spirit

against the white supremacy.

Along with dramatic irony and pedagogical stylistics, schema theory is equally useful to

understand the text. Schema theory posits that the reader extrapolates the implicit details to

understand semantic essence of the text (Emmott et al. 268). Applying the schema theory, one

can infer that racial power dynamics by alluding to the conspicuous use of “Black” for the man

and the woman to mark their racial identities. It's imperative to note that he does not use the

word “Black” for his mother and sister since they are not a part of revolutionary movement.

They have internalized the racism but see white people as superior beings. Further, by

extrapolating the use of “Devil Lady” for the white woman, one can infer that narrative of the

play is titled against the white woman.

Conclusion:

From the above account, one can conclude that stylistic analysis of the play Mad Heart

reveals many insights into the narrative of the play which might not otherwise be foregrounded.

The first part of the analysis employs Pedagogical Stylistics to reveal the contrasting positions
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taken by two characters. The second part involves schema theory to extrapolate the language to

reveal the revolutionary element of language.

Works Cited

Baraka, Amiri. “Mad Heart”. Four Black Revolutionary Plays, edited by LeRoi Jones, The

Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York, 1969, pp. 65-87.

Emmott, Alexander et al. “Schema Theory in Stylistics”. The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics,

edited by Michael Burke, Routledge, 2014, pp. 268-83.

Hall, Goeff. “Pedagogical Stylistics.” The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics, edited by Michael

Burke, Routledge, 2014, pp. 239-52.

Macrae, Andrea. “Stylistics, Drama and Performance”. The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics,

edited by Michael Burke, Routledge, 2014, pp. 253-67.