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A Critical Investigation of the Concept of Double Consciousness in Selected African-American Autobiographies

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A Critical Investigation of the Concept of Double Consciousness in Selected African-American Autobiographies A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CONCEPT OF DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS IN SELECTED AFRICAN-AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHIES By LENTO MZUKISI JERREY Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY In the subject of ENGLISH At the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR M. T. VAMBE JUNE 2015 DECLARATION Student Number: 5184-508-3 I, Lento Mzukisi Jerrey, declare that “A Critical Investigation of the Concept of Double Consciousness in Selected African-American autobiographies” is my work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. ____________________________ ________________ (MR M. J. LENTO) DATE ii SUMMARY The study critically investigated the concept of ―Double Consciousness‖ in selected African-American autobiographies. In view of the latter, W.E.B. Du Bois defined double consciousness as a condition of being both black and American which he perceived as the reason black people were/are being discriminated in America. The study demonstrated that creative works such as Harriet Jacobs‘ Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl: Told by Herself, Frederick Douglass‘ The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois‘ The Souls of Black Folk, Booker T. Washington‘s Up from Slavery, Langston Hughes‘ The Big Sea, Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks on a Road, Malcolm X‘s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Maya Angelou‘s All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes, Cornel West‘s Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud and bell hooks‘ Bone Black affirm double consciousness as well as critiqued the concept, revealing new layers of identities and contested sites of struggle in African-American society. The study used a qualitative method to analyse and argue that there are ideological shifts that manifest in the creative representation of the idea of double consciousness since slavery. Some relevant critical voices were used to support, complicate and question the notion of double consciousness as represented in selected autobiographies. The study argued that there are many identities in the African-American communities which need attention equal to that of race. The study further argued that double consciousness has been modified and by virtue of this, authors suggested multiple forms of consciousness. iii KEY TERMS African-American Autobiography Double consciousness Passing Racism Gender Class Slavery Reconstruction Harlem Renaissance Civil Rights Movement iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my promoter, Professor Maurice T. Vambe, for his many years of thoughtful, patient guidance and support. Thanks are also due to my wife, Bomikazi Lento for her unwavering support. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my mother, Gladys Lento who always believed in me. I want to thank my siblings for their encouragement and support. I wish to express my appreciation to UNISA library for making sure that I got all the books that I wanted. My gratitude also goes to UNISA for financial assistance. Thank you all. v DEDICATION This work is principally dedicated to Gladys Lento, Bomikazi Lento, Akahlulwa Lento, Asathi Lento, Zukiswa Lento, Siphiwo Lento, Phumla Lento, Lillian Lento, Zola Lento, Nontsikelelo Lento, Thandile Lento, Eliz Lento, Zikhona Nandipha Nkubevana Lento, Nosiphiwo Gomomo, Phumzile Malambile, Azola Hani, Samkelisiwe Jafta, Minikazi Jafta, and Siyabulela Manqunyana. vi CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………....………..i SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………….………….ii KEY TERMS……………………………………………………………………….………..iii. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………….iv DEDICATION……………………………………………………………….……..………..v CHAPTER 1. Critical Interrogation of ideological shifts in the meanings of the concept of double consciousness in the African-American Literature…..….……..………1 1.1. Area of Study……………………………………….……………….…..….1 1.2. Statement of the problem…………………………………..…….…..……5 1.3. Aim of the study……………………………………………….……..…..…7 1.4. Research objectives..………………………………………………………7 1.5. Research questions.………………………………………………………..7 1.6. Justification of the study…………………………………………….…..…7 1.7. Literature review………………………………………………..……….…10 1.8. Theoretical framework…………………………………………..……..…15 1.9. Research method and methodology………………………………..…..19 1.10. Chapter delineation………………………………………………….…….20 2. ―Double Consciousness‘ and double identities in autobiographies: A Literature Review‖………………………………………………………………………………25 2.1. Literature Review…………………………………………………...…..….25 2.2. Introduction…………………………………………………………....……26 2.3. Defining autobiography……………………………………………...….…27 2.4. Theoretical representation of an autobiography……………………..…29 2.5. The impact of autobiography in the American society…………….…..31 2.6. The American society and racism………………………………….….…32 2.7. The coinage of the concept of Double Consciousness………….….…37 2.8. Critical reviews and literary works on Double Consciousness….….…38 2.9. Critical voices on the autobiographies…………………….……….…....41 2.10. Conclusion………………………………………………………….………43 3. Contrasting views on Double Consciousness in narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs………………………………………………….….45 3.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………..….45 3.2. Frederick Douglass‘ the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass....45 vii 3.3. Views in in Harriet Jacobs‘ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl….…..54 3.4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….72 4. Diverse views on double consciousness in Booker T Washington‘s Up from Slavery and W.E.B. Dubois‘ The Souls of Black Folks.…………….………….74 4.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………74 4.2. W.E.B. Du Bois and Double Consciousness in The Souls Of Black Folk…………………………………………………………………….…....74 4.3. Critique of W.E.B. Du Bois……………………………………………..…90 4.4. Outlooks on Booker T. Washington‘s Up from Slavery…………....…..91 4.5. Critique of Booker T. Washington………………………………………104 4.6. Conclusion …………………………………………………………….….104 5. Diverse views on double consciousness in the autobiographies of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.………………………………..…107 5.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..…107 5.2. Views in Langston Hughes‘ The Big Sea……………….……….....…114 5.3. Views in Zora Neale Hurston‘s Dust Tracks on a Road…………..…139 5.4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…164 6. Distinct views on double consciousness on autobiographies of Malcolm X and Maya Angelou………………………………………………………………….…166 6.1. Introduction………………………………………………………...…..…166 6.2. Different outlooks on Malcolm X……………………………………..…168 6.3. Different outlooks on Maya Angelou……………………………………202 6.4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…217 7. Double consciousness in Cornel West and bell hooks………………….……219 7.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..…219 7.2. Interpretations on Cornell West‘s Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud (2009)…………………………………………………………….…219 7.3. Critique of West………………………………………………………..…231 7.4. bell hooks‘ Bone Black………………………………………………...…231 7.5. Critique of hooks……………………………………………………….…259 7.6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………..….…259 8. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..….…261 Bibliography……………………………………………………………...…….… 270 viii Chapter 1 Critical Interrogation of ideological shifts in the meanings of the concept of double consciousness in the African-American Literature 1.1. Area of Study The aim of this study is to explore the concept of double consciousness in selected African American autobiographies. To provide a historical context of this study, it is worth mentioning that African-Americans were kidnapped from the African continent and exported to Europe and America. In substantiating the latter, Rodney (2005) claims that ―In East Africa and the Sudan, many Africans were taken by Arabs and were sold to Arab buyers. This is known as the ‗Arab Slave Trade‘ (Rodney, 2005: 108). The Africans taken to Europe and America were made to become slaves. This massive and enforcement of Africans to the western hemisphere is known as the transAtlantic slave trade. My study is concerned with the fate of Africans in and after the transatlantic trade as depicted in African- American autobiographies. It is import to note that during the voyage to Europe and America, an African was not yet a slave, but a captive. Rodney concurs with the above that ―strictly speaking, the African only became a slave when he reached a society where he worked as a slave. Before that, he was first a free man and then a captive‖ (Rodney, 2005: 108). Upon the arrival in the foreign lands, Africans were forced to do hard labor to maximize the profits for the white slaver masters. Rodney asserts that ―[…] and this was in the interest of European capitalism, nothing else‖ (2005: 108). The slaves were subjected to all sorts of violence until slavery was abolished in 1845. The abolishment of slavery did not mean good life to former slaves and freedmen as African-Americans were further marginalized and segregated. Segregation and marginalization affected the African- Americans psychologically as they were denied equal opportunities such as education and employment. W.E.B. Du Bois one of the educated African American living during the period of slavery reflected on the painful lives of black people in America and concluded that these blacks were living under a condition ―Double Consciousness.‖ The fact of being black and American did not guarantee civil rights to black people. Thus, blacks were trapped by the slavery and its after-effects. However, not all African 1 Americans view their lives as being entrapped in what Du Bois described as this two- ness, and the consciousness
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