https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.069
The Price of Progress: Interest Convergence and the Medical-Industrial Complex in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
G. GNANA SNOWLIN ASMI
Research Scholar of English (Reg. No. 2511128022003)
St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Palayamkottai
Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishekapatti
DR. S. VEERALAKSHMI
Assistant Professor, Research Department of English,
St. Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai- 627002,
Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishekapatti
Abstract: Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad utilizes the South Carolina episode to dismantle the myth of racial advancement, reframing “progress” as a sophisticated mechanism of state control. Applying Derrick Bell’s concept of interest convergence, this paper contends that the state’s paternalistic offerings of healthcare, housing, and labor are not humanitarian efforts but strategic tools used to maintain white institutional dominance. By examining Whitehead’s depiction of mandatory medical screenings and systematic sterilization, this paper argues that the narrative exposes a proto–medical-industrial complex designed to harvest data and enforce compliance. Furthermore, using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectional framework, this study illustrates how gendered vulnerabilities leave protagonists like Cora uniquely exposed to state-sanctioned reproductive violence. Ultimately, Whitehead’s South Carolina serves as a haunting precursor to 20th-century eugenics, proving that when “progress” is decoupled from Black agency, it merely functions as a more palatable mask for systemic oppression.
Keywords: Interest Convergence, Intersectionality, Biopolitics, Medical-Industrial Complex, Eugenics, Reproductive Justice
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