Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage as Historiographic Metafiction

Suggests that what makes Charles Johnson’s “Middle Passage” significant and eminently teachable is that it is an accessible example of “historiographic metafiction”-bestselling postmodern novels set in the past. Notes that students find the novel “easy” and enjoyable and that teaching the novel with some of its intertexts, such as H. Melville’s “Moby Dick,” can be a rewarding experience.