Literary Tricksters in African American and Chinese American Fiction
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 Far from "everybody's everything": Literary tricksters in African American and Chinese American fiction Crystal Suzette anderson College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, and the Ethnic Studies Commons Recommended Citation anderson, Crystal Suzette, "Far from "everybody's everything": Literary tricksters in African American and Chinese American fiction" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623988. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-z7mp-ce69 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. 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FAR FROM “EVERYBODY’S EVERYTHING”: LITERARY TRICKSTERS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND CHINESE AMERICAN FICTION A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the American Studies Program The College of William and Mary In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Crystal S. Anderson 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9999049 UMI___ ® UMI Microform9999049 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Crystal S. Anderson Approved, November 2000 ermine Pinson Advisor Knight b^Lccs\ 'S- . (P^Lf (Jii t iberley Phillips Terry 1 Givens University of Richmond Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I. TRICKSTER TRANSFORMATIONS: THE 14 DEVELOPMENT OF THE LITERARY TRICKSTER CHAPTER H. NO NATURAL MAN: BLACK MATE TRICKSTERS IN 67 JOHN EDGAR WTDEMAN’S REUBEN CHAPTER m. MORE WISE THAN WICKED: BLACK FEMALE 105 TRICKSTERISM IN GLORIA NAYLOR’S MAMA DAY CHAPTER IV. EXILE ON THE ROAD OF LIFE: HEROIC 145 TRICKSTERISM IN FRANK CHIN’S GUNGA DEN HIGHWAY CHAPTER V. NATIVE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE GOLDEN 184 STATE: THE COMPOSITE TRICKSTER FIGURE IN MAXINE HONG KINGSTON’S THE TRIPMASTER MONKEY: HIS FAKE BOOK AFTERWARD 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 234 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wishe to express her appreciation to Professor ffermine Pinson, under whose guidance this study was conducted. I also owe much thanks to Professors Terryl Givens, Arthur Knight and Kimberley Phillips for their careful reading and criticism of the manuscript. In addition, the author is indebted to Professor Leisa Meyer for her guidance. Much thanks to the inspirational words of Cornel West. I would also like to thank my family for their unending love and support: my parents, Mr. Perry and Mrs. Mary Boyd; my aunts and uncles, Gloria and Byron, Doris, Carolyn, Delores, Brenda, David Jr., Bobby and Amy; my sister and brothers, Terry, Jeffery and Perry; as well as numerous cousins. I have greatly benefited from the input of various teachers and administrators over the span on my education, including Chip Bailey, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Janice Bibby, Mrs. Carter, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Callahan, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Holland-Wilson, Mrs. Green, Dr. Dean Simpson, Dr. Walt Stevenson, Dr. Welford Taylor, Steve Nash, Dr. David Evans, Dr. Louis Schwartz, Dr. Tina Cade, Dr. Steve Cushman, William Ellwood, Dr. Jacquelyn McLendon, Dr. Cindy Hahamovitch and Jean Brown. This work could not have been completed without the financial and moral support of Dr. Ansley Abraham and Southern Regional Education Board, the State of Virginia through its various fellowship opportunities, as well as the Payroll Department of Virginia Commonwealth University, especially, Irene, Debbie, Sammie, Pat, Wayne, Dee, Shayne, Chandra and Towanda. I have a special debt of gratitude to Angela, Mamie, and Carrie for keeping me in touch with faith. Much love and appreciation to my friends who supported me through this long process: Renee Nick, for the daily conversations and reality checks, Ashley Hairston, for criticism constructive and otherwise, Susan Glisson, for blazing the trail, Glen Irvin, for keeping things in perspective, as well as LariyGarrard, James and Letitia Dennis, Robin Smith, Terri Laterza, Julia Kagiwada, Kelly Mason, Whitney Battle, Geofrilyn Walker and Bert Ashe. IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines trickster sensibilities and behavior as models for racial strategies in contemporary novels by African American and Chinese American authors. While many trickster studies focus on myth, I assert that realist fiction provides a unique historical and cultural space that shapes trickster behavior. John Edgar Wideman, Gloria Naylor, Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston use the trickster in their novels to articulate diverse racial strategies for people of color who must negotiate among a variety of cultural influences. My critical trickster paradigm investigates the motives and behavior of tricksters. It utilizes close literary readings that are strengthened by my comprehensive knowledge of the history of African Americans and Chinese Americans. Throughout time, images that define individuals in both groups develop in the popular imagination. The authors use the trickster to critique and revise those representations. African American authors also influence the racial discourse of Chinese American writers. I concluded that the literary trickster’s behavior and sensibilities vary from character to character. I found that African American and Chinese American authors share some racial strategies. They also utilize different racial strategies as a result of the different historical and cultural experiences of African Americans and Chinese Americans. Moreover, male and female African American authors differ in the kinds of racial strategies they advocate, just as male and female Chinese American authors. Such research is significant because of its interdisciplinary exploration of racial strategies of African Americans and Chinese Americans. It provides an alternative approach to the study of the trickster. My work also goes beyond the black/white racial paradigm to explore the cultural dialogue between African American and Chinese American writers. V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FAR FROM “EVERYBODY’S EVERYTHING”: LITERARY TRICKSTERS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND CHINESE AMERICAN FICTION Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION The present study of trickster figures in ethnic fiction has been years in the making, literally. As a child, I was fascinated with Brer Rabbit in the tales collected by Joel Chandler Harris. I saw the stories as a primer for explaining oneself out of sticky situations. Now, as a scholar, I see the trickster as a multicultural figure that resides in other oral and narrative traditions ranging from African American to Latino to Chinese and that embodies a variety of critical functions in culture.1 Because much