Intersecting Margins: Representations of Black Disability and Economic Precarity in Contemporary American Literature: Persinggungan Marginalisasi: Representasi Disabilitas Kulit Hitam dan Kerentanan Ekonomi dalam Sastra Amerika Kontemporer

Asadul Al Galif (Dhaka International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Tamanna Ferdous Ferdous (Dhaka International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Wahid Kaiser (Kishoreganj University, Kishoreganj, Bangladesh)
Md. Ziaul Haque (University of Creative Technology, Chattogram, Bangladesh)

SiRad: Pelita Wawasan
June (Vol. 2 No. 2, 2026)

This research explores the intersection of race, class, and disability in current American literature through a scrutiny of The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. It delves into the way sidelined identities, especially Black, disabled, and poor people, are depicted and the way these representations challenge prevailing narratives of the status quo and value as far as the U.S. society is concerned. The research utilizes a qualitative methodology embedded in intersectional feminist literary criticism and critical disability studies and concentrates on thematic construction, character improvement, and narrative voice. The results exhibit that both writers demonstrate disability as societally and politically structured instead of medicalized, and they challenge its conventional descriptions. The lived realism of racial segregation and poverty is focused on by the novels, emphasizing the way struggle and continued existence are negotiated through non-normative quintessence, ethnic memory, and community. The research adds to an increasing body of scholarship that insists on the requirement of intersectionality in literary exploration, accentuating the role of literature as a space for political involvement and struggle amongst communities that face numerous forms of marginalization [Penelitian ini mengeksplorasi persinggungan antara ras, kelas sosial, dan disabilitas dalam sastra Amerika kontemporer melalui kajian terhadap The Salt Eaters karya Toni Cade Bambara dan Salvage the Bones karya Jesmyn Ward. Penelitian ini mengkaji bagaimana identitas-identitas yang termarginalkan, khususnya kelompok kulit hitam, penyandang disabilitas, dan masyarakat miskin, direpresentasikan serta bagaimana representasi tersebut menantang narasi dominan mengenai status sosial dan nilai kemanusiaan dalam masyarakat Amerika Serikat. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi kualitatif yang berlandaskan kritik sastra feminis interseksional dan studi disabilitas kritis, dengan fokus pada konstruksi tema, pengembangan karakter, dan suara naratif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kedua penulis merepresentasikan disabilitas sebagai sesuatu yang dibentuk oleh struktur sosial dan politik, bukan semata-mata sebagai kondisi medis, sekaligus menantang penggambaran konvensional mengenai disabilitas. Kedua novel tersebut juga menyoroti realitas kehidupan yang dipengaruhi oleh segregasi rasial dan kemiskinan, dengan menekankan bagaimana perjuangan dan keberlangsungan hidup dinegosiasikan melalui identitas yang nonnormatif, memori budaya, dan solidaritas komunitas. Penelitian ini berkontribusi pada perkembangan kajian yang menegaskan pentingnya pendekatan interseksionalitas dalam analisis sastra, serta menyoroti peran sastra sebagai ruang keterlibatan politik dan perlawanan bagi komunitas yang menghadapi berbagai bentuk marginalisasi.]