LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
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theses
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Comparative Literature
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
African American women in literature
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
African American women authors--History and criticism
Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the function of black vernacular myths and rituals in three primary women's texts of the Americas: Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon (1977), Simone Schwartz-Bart's Pluie et Vent sur Telumee Miracle (1972) and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow (1983). My project codifies how the black vernacular expressions of mythology and ritual are used to negotiate power between the individual and their community. Specifically, I trace how the women in these texts used resources of the black vernacular tradition as social and cultural collateral to empower themselves within an alternative system of values that simultaneously validates self and communal worth. Analyzing the transnational myths of the Flying Africans/Ibo Landing--myths of newly-arrived Africans escaping slavery by flight or by walking on water back to Africa, I contend that the performances of these myths and dance rituals not only created kinship bonds but also provided opportunities for expanding the parameters of community.
This writing grew from the limits of the Black Arts Movement (1960-1970) when the male-dominated discourse on the black vernacular traditions focused on creating a voice distinct from, and often in conflict with, the prevailing white literary establishment. Simultaneously, Second Wave Feminism left women of color outside of the discourse on social justice and their definition of womanhood. I argue that these black women authors responded to this marginalization within their affinity groups by employing folk traditions to observe intra-communal dynamics. Doing so created a model of internal reflection that both revealed the seeds of internalized dominant/subordinate ideologies and served as an alternative method to record the impact of the larger social structure of domination.
These authors located black women's knowledge and power in liminal folk spaces in their novels. Taken together, they introduced a metaphor for black women's positioning in the Black Arts Movement and Second Wave Feminism; folk traditions from this insider/outsider perspective became tools to navigate and critique systems of domination. These texts provided dramatizations of a black feminist perspective, navigating black women's experiences of intersectionality, thus employing folk knowledge as a means to create new possibilities from historical traditions.
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD
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Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
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Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Tolbert
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Tolonda
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2010-01-05 11:53:16
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Tolonda Tolbert
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Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.