Internalization of Racial Discourse in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis

Rosyid, Fatchudin; Ruly Indra Darmawan

doi:10.15294/rainbow.v15i2.57317

Akses terbuka Jurnal

Internalization of Racial Discourse in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis

Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies · Vol. 15 No. 2 (2026) · hlm. 75–86

DOI: 10.15294/rainbow.v15i2.57317
ISSN: 2721-4540, 2252-6323
Terbit: 2026-08-03
Penerbit: Universitas Negeri Semarang
Bahasa: eng
Lisensi: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Abstrak

This study aims to analyses the internalization of racial discourse in the novel and to examine how white supremacist ideologies shape the characters' social cognition. Using Teun A. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach in Critical Discourse Analysis and a qualitative descriptive method, the study identifies the discursive patterns that produce anticipatory fear before actual physical discrimination occurs. The results show that racial discourse deeply navigates the characters' mental models, leading to the cognitive dehumanization of the 'Other' and melancholia over lost racial privilege. Moreover, the characters build in-group boundaries and generate apocalyptic paranoia to rationalize victimization. These cognitive manipulations are frequently used to legitimize prejudice and conceal historical guilt. In conclusion, these results reveal how racism works most subtly at the cognitive level, showing that character’s experience racial anxiety even in the absence of real conflict, because they view the loss of whiteness as an existential threat rather than a biological phenomenon. Significantly, this study extends CDA research by demonstrating that dismantling white supremacy requires deconstructing not only institutional racism but also the invisible cognitive frameworks that sustain racial hierarchies in everyday life.

Kata kunci

Jaringan kolaborasi para penulis

16 penulis · 25 tautan kepenulisan bersama

Arahkan kursor atau ketuk sebuah nama untuk menyorot rekan penulisnya. Klik dua kali untuk membuka halaman penulis.

Afiliasi tidak diketahui

Organisasi berbeda
Organisasi sama
Afiliasi tidak diketahui
Garis lebih tebal = lebih banyak artikel bersama · lingkaran lebih besar = lebih banyak artikel

Tampilkan sebagai tabel

Rekan penulis	Organisasi	Artikel bersama
Ainul Hamdiyah	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Muhammad Raihan Adi Madana	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Sri Sumaryani	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Maria Johana Ari Widayanti	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Muhammad Ilmi Al Bahy	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Patrick Maullana Ryan	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Shafadila Ariani Alfitria	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Izra Sesafya Tsabit	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Puji Astuti	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Girindra Putri Dewi Saraswati	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Muhhamad Amir Syaimudin Idris	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Thohiriyah Thohiriyah	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
mohamad ikhwan rosyidi	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1
Genis Naila Alfunisa	Afiliasi tidak diketahui	1

Afiliasi berasal dari OpenAlex; metadata OAI-PMH jurnal tidak memuatnya. Penulis tanpa ID OpenAlex dicocokkan berdasarkan nama, sehingga dua orang bisa tergabung atau satu orang bisa terpisah.

Sumber metadata: OAI-PMH (metadata jurnal) https://journal.unnes.ac.id/journals/rainbow/oai, pertama di-harvest 6 Nov 2026, terakhir terlihat 8 Nov 2026.

Metadata asli (oai_dc)

<oai_dc:dc xmlns="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/  http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
	<dc:title xml:lang="en">Internalization of Racial Discourse in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis</dc:title>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Rosyid, Fatchudin</dc:creator>
	<dc:creator xml:lang="en">Ruly Indra Darmawan</dc:creator>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">Critical Discourse Analysis</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">racial discourse</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en"> socio-cognitive approach</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">The Last White Man</dc:subject>
	<dc:subject xml:lang="en">white supremacy</dc:subject>
	<dc:description xml:lang="en">This study aims to analyses the internalization of racial discourse in the novel and to examine how white supremacist ideologies shape the characters' social cognition. Using Teun A. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach in Critical Discourse Analysis and a qualitative descriptive method, the study identifies the discursive patterns that produce anticipatory fear before actual physical discrimination occurs. The results show that racial discourse deeply navigates the characters' mental models, leading to the cognitive dehumanization of the 'Other' and melancholia over lost racial privilege. Moreover, the characters build in-group boundaries and generate apocalyptic paranoia to rationalize victimization. These cognitive manipulations are frequently used to legitimize prejudice and conceal historical guilt. In conclusion, these results reveal how racism works most subtly at the cognitive level, showing that character’s experience racial anxiety even in the absence of real conflict, because they view the loss of whiteness as an existential threat rather than a biological phenomenon. Significantly, this study extends CDA research by demonstrating that dismantling white supremacy requires deconstructing not only institutional racism but also the invisible cognitive frameworks that sustain racial hierarchies in everyday life.  </dc:description>
	<dc:publisher xml:lang="en">Universitas Negeri Semarang</dc:publisher>
	<dc:date>2026-08-03</dc:date>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/article</dc:type>
	<dc:type>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion</dc:type>
	<dc:type xml:lang="en">Peer-reviewed Article</dc:type>
	<dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
	<dc:identifier>https://journal.unnes.ac.id/journals/rainbow/article/view/57317</dc:identifier>
	<dc:identifier>10.15294/rainbow.v15i2.57317</dc:identifier>
	<dc:source xml:lang="en">Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies; Vol. 15 No. 2 (2026): Special Issue ; 75-86</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2721-4540</dc:source>
	<dc:source>2252-6323</dc:source>
	<dc:source>10.15294/rainbow.v15i2</dc:source>
	<dc:language>eng</dc:language>
	<dc:relation>https://journal.unnes.ac.id/journals/rainbow/article/view/57317/10907</dc:relation>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">Copyright (c) 2026 Fatchudin Rosyid, Ruly Indra Darmawan (Author)</dc:rights>
	<dc:rights xml:lang="en">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</dc:rights>
</oai_dc:dc>