The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 8-2011 The Black Plumb Line: Re-evaluating Race and Africanist Images in Non-Black Authored American Texts LaShondra Vanessa Robinson University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons, and the Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons Recommended Citation Robinson, LaShondra Vanessa, "The Black Plumb Line: Re-evaluating Race and Africanist Images in Non- Black Authored American Texts" (2011). Dissertations. 663. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/663 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE BLACK PLUMB LINE: RE-EVALUATING RACE AND AFRICANIST IMAGES IN NON-BLACK AUTHORED AMERICAN TEXTS by LaShondra Vanessa Robinson Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2011 ABSTRACT THE BLACK PLUMB LINE: RE-EVALUATING RACE AND AFRICANIST IMAGES IN NON-BLACK AUTHORED AMERICAN TEXTS by LaShondra Vanessa Robinson August 2011 This study evaluates Africanisms (representations of racialized or ethnicized blackness) within three contemporary non-black authors’ texts: Jewish American Saul Bellow’s novel Henderson the Rain King, white southerner Melinda Haynes’ novel Mother of Pearl, and Nyurican poet Victor Hernández Cruz’s works “Mesa Blanca” and “White Table.” Though not entirely unproblematic, each selection somehow redefines black identity and agency to challenge denigrated representations of Africanist people and culture.