Autor:
Współtwórca:
Łobodziec, Agnieszka - red. nauk. ; Fondo, Blossom N. - red. nauk.
Tytuł:
Tytuł publikacji grupowej:
Temat i słowa kluczowe:
identity politics ; sexual politics ; personal identity ; black popular fiction ; black womanhood
Abstract:
Identity in the African American context has often meant racial identity. This is explained by the deeply racialized society in which blacks had to live in America and where, by virtue of their racial identity, they were the subjects of gross abuses. As a consequence, race became the main thrust of much of African American literature. ; The rise of literature by black women witnessed the addition of gender to the race question as these women sought to illustrate what it means to be black and female in America. The gains of the Civil Rights Movement which included a marked improvement in the status and circumstances of African Americans (even if much still remains to be desired), encouraged writers to begin addressing other aspects of the African American reality. ; Terry McMillan is one of such writers whose popular fiction has not made race her central focus. She focuses especially on the experiences of the contemporary African American woman away from the racial perspective. Her works have come under harsh scrutiny and they have been considered apolitical and consequently irrelevant to the African American community. ; The purpose of this paper is to contest these accusations by underlining the ways the issues McMillan raises in her novel "Getting to Happy" constitute a worthwhile contribution to the discourse of identity in African American literature. My main argument is that the quest for selfhood by the women in this novel disrupts the stereotyped version of African American women and is therefore politically relevant. ; I underscore that, because identity is multidimensional and dynamic, Mcmillan`s "Getting to Happy" fulfills the important task of imagining African American female identity from another perspective and through this McMillan crafts a new black womanhood not entirely dependent on race.
Wydawca:
Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego
Data wydania:
Typ zasobu:
Format:
Strony:
Źródło:
Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego: Seria Scripta Humana, tom 12