ABSTRACT
This chapter reevaluates one of Dreiser's most anthologized short stories, 'Nigger Jeff', an anti-lynching narrative, beyond its purview as an exemplar of American literary naturalism. It shows one of Dreiser's finest forays into the realm of American Gothic literature at the turn of the twentieth century, with strong connections to current conversations included in Black Atlantic Studies and the legacies of slavery as Euro-American hauntings. Paul Gilroy argues in The Black Atlantic, Euro-Americans used ' terror systematically and rationally' to highlight what they saw as fundamental differences between blacks and whites. But the terror is reflective terror Dreiser suggests in 'Nigger Jeff'. Irrational fear of the black Other, on a deeply psychological level is shared by white Euro-Americans. The chapter also suggests Gothic literature; it is inherently political in nature. For like all literature, 'gothic stories are intimately connected to the culture that produces them' and often reflect the social and political spheres in which these tales are written.
