Negotiating Conflict through Intersubjectivity: Revisiting Bernard Malamud’s “Black Is My Favourite Colour”

Abstract

This paper situates Bernard Malamud’s short story “Black Is My Favourite Colour” within the interdisciplinary framework of peace and conflict studies, focusing on racial tensions and possibilities of reconciliation between Jewish Americans and African Americans in post-war United States society. The study first examines instances of conflict, resistance, and hostility faced by the Jewish protagonist Nathan Lime, highlighting how racial capitalism, economic disparity, and entrenched stereotypes shape antagonistic Black–Jewish relations during the era of the Black Power Movement. Through a close reading of key narrative episodes, the paper identifies the formation of binary oppositions—such as tolerance versus intolerance, sensitivity versus stoicism, businessman versus goon, and refined versus crude—that intensify racial misunderstanding and violence.

The paper then explores the concept of intersubjectivity as a peace-making tool, drawing on philosophical, psychological, and sociological interpretations of the term. Intersubjectivity is examined as an ethical and emotional practice rooted in empathy, perspective-taking, and social responsibility. Nathan Lime’s responses to racial aggression—marked by patience, restraint, and attempts to understand the other’s suffering—are analysed as practical enactments of intersubjectivity. His relationships with characters such as Buster Wilson, Charity Quietness, and Ornita Harris demonstrate how empathy and emotional intelligence open limited but significant possibilities for coexistence, even in structurally unequal contexts.

The study further situates Malamud’s narrative within Jewish American literary traditions that privilege moral vision, forgiveness, and humanitarian ethics over cynicism and despair. By invoking thinkers such as Martin Buber and Eric Sundquist, the paper argues that Malamud presents intersubjective engagement as an alternative to violent confrontation, though not as a simplistic solution to systemic injustice. Ultimately, the article concludes that while intersubjectivity cannot fully resolve historical and economic inequalities, it functions as a crucial ethical practice that enables dialogue, mitigates violence, and gestures toward a fragile yet meaningful possibility of peace between marginalized racial communities.