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© 2007 Maria J. Rice ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2007 Maria J. Rice ALL RIGHTS RESERVED MIGRATIONS OF MEMORY: POSTMEMORY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ETHNIC AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE by MARIA J. RICE A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program of Literatures in English written under the direction of Cheryl A. Wall and approved by _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ May 2007 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION MIGRATIONS OF MEMORY: POSTMEMORY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ETHNIC AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE by MARIA J. RICE Dissertation Director: Cheryl A. Wall “Migrations of Memory” studies the experience and resolution of inherited traumatic memory as depicted in the late twentieth-century narrative works of Ethnic and African American women writers. Often raised in the shadow of cultural or traumatic memories with which they have no direct experience, but deep affective connection, these writers from traditionally marginalized or subjugated groups find themselves, in the post 1960s era, with greater opportunities than ever before to enter the mainstream of American society and separate themselves from their cultural pasts. My study argues that, in response to this possible loss of cultural moorings, contemporary Ethnic and African American women writers use narrative to theorize their relationship to their cultural inheritance and the influence that relation has on the formation of contemporary identity. This dissertation builds on the scholarship of Marianne Hirsch who coined the term postmemory to describe the relationship the children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma have to their parents’ memories. Although Hirsch originated the term ii in relation to the Holocaust, my project utilizes the concept as a starting point for a theoretical approach to analyzing narrative representations of the generational impact of traumatic memory in a diversity of cultural contexts and resulting from a variety of experiences. The texts in my study have in common a process of identification, translation, and differentiation, whereby American-born protagonists first identify with or bear witness to their traumatic inheritance, then translate it into the terms of their lived experience, and finally differentiate from it by re-articulating it in a form appropriate to their generational or cultural perspective. Analyzing the experience of inherited traumatic memory depicted in Gayl Jones’ Corregidora, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Phyllis Alesia Perry’s Stigmata, Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman, I argue ultimately that the resolution of postmemory requires representation and consistently engenders formal innovation. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I reflect on the six-year journey that has brought me to this moment, I must express my gratitude to so many who have supported and encouraged me along the way. First, I am grateful for the blessings and provisions of God who has carried me through this process and remains the source of my strength and peace. Among my greatest blessings are my family and friends, whose unconditional love has been the foundation of every one of my achievements. I particularly wish to thank my parents, John and Henrietta Rice, to whom I simply owe everything; my church family, who have prayed me through the past six years; and my new best friend, who has kept me focused and encouraged during the home stretch. Looking back on my six years at Rutgers, I am so thankful to have been a part of the Graduate English Program. The excellence of the faculty, the patient, loving and knowledgeable support staff, and the camaraderie of my classmates, both in and out of the Department, have made my time as a doctoral student such a richly rewarding experience. I am particularly grateful for the wisdom, generosity, and wonderfully constructive guidance of my dissertation committee: Dr. Cheryl A. Wall, who has quite literally held my hand through the past three years; Dr. Marianne DeKoven, the very first professor I met at Rutgers, whose unfailing encouragement helped me through many difficult days; Dr. Brent Hayes Edwards, whose wonderfully cogent insights have never failed to take my thinking to a deeper level; and Dr. Valerie A. Smith, who has been with me since the beginning of my path to become an academic and, although not involved in iv every moment of my journey, has been present at critical junctures and provided guidance that was pivotal to the success of my efforts. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the American Association of University Women during the writing of my dissertation and of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation during the first year of my graduate study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: THE VIOLENCE OF MEMORY: The Oppressive Ancestral Narrative in Gayl Jones’ Corregidora.......................................... 42 CHAPTER 3: RECLAIMING AND RESTORING ROOTS: Contemporary Narratives of Slavery and African American Collective Postmemory........... 79 CHAPTER 4: RE-WRITING OUR INHERITANCE: Fragmentation and Re-membering in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker and Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban................................................................................................ 133 CHAPTER 5: GIRLHOODS AMONG GHOSTS: Reclaiming the Maternal Inheritance in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman.............................................................................. 197 CONCLUSION: Thoughts on Women, Trauma and Memory......................................................................... 270 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................... 276 CURRICULUM VITA ......................................................................................................... 284 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Postmemory describes the relationship of the generation after those who witnessed cultural or collective trauma to the experiences of those who came before, experiences that they “remember” only by means of the stories and images with which they grew up. But these experiences were transmitted to them so deeply as to seem to constitute memories in their own right. Postmemory’s connection to the past is not mediated by recall but by imaginative investment, projection, and creation. (Marianne Hirsch, “The Generation of Postmemory, 4) Although memory has always migrated across generations within families, from parent to child, “Migrations of Memory” is concerned with how this generational process is complicated by the multiplicity of migrations people in modern society may endure— voluntary and involuntary movements across geographical, cultural, class, and other social or psychological boundaries—and by the effects of collective and national traumas that similarly travel with their survivors and their descendants into new settings. I am particularly interested in how these complex and multi-faceted forms of migrating memory challenge contemporary Ethnic and African American women who feel most keenly the divide between the traditions and traumatic legacies of their cultural heritages and the dictates of the society in which they live. This is a critical concern in the post 1960s United States in which women from traditionally subjugated or marginalized groups have greater opportunity to enter the mainstream than ever before and separate themselves from their respective cultural pasts. The writers in my study respond to the anxiety of this possible loss of cultural moorings by engaging in an exploration of their inheritance through the creation of narrative. Often raised in the shadow of cultural or traumatic memories with which they have no direct experience, but deep affective connection, contemporary Ethnic and African American women writers use narrative to 2 theorize their relation to their inheritance and the influence that relationship has on the formation of contemporary identity. “Migrations of Memory” builds on the scholarship of Marianne Hirsch who coined the term postmemory to describe the relationship the children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma have to their parents’ memories.1 Although Hirsch originated the term in relation to the Holocaust, my project utilizes the concept as a starting point for a theoretical approach to analyzing narrative representations of the generational impact of traumatic memory in a diversity of cultural contexts and resulting from a variety of experiences. While the Holocaust stands preeminent among traumatic events in the twentieth century, modern history has witnessed other mass traumas that have or will impact generations of the descendants of their survivors. Most notable among these are the experience and enduring legacy of New World Slavery, which is joined in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur as well as the traumatic aftermath
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