Identity and the Politics of Space in Contemporary Black Women's Fiction Ceron L
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2012 A Room of Her Own: Identity and the Politics of Space in Contemporary Black Women's Fiction Ceron L. Bryant Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES A ROOM OF HER OWN: IDENTITY AND THE POLITICS OF SPACE IN CONTEMPORARY BLACK WOMEN'S FICTION By CERON L. BRYANT A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2012 Ceron L. Bryant defended this dissertation on March 19, 2012. The members of the supervisory committee were: Maxine Montgomery Professor Directing Dissertation Kathleen Erndl University Representative David Johnson Committee Member Dennis Moore Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my loving parents, Joe Alton Bryant and Ada Battle Bryant, thank you for showing me how to speak positive words into existence. I love you more than I will ever be able to show you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The culmination of this dissertation is more than what is shown on the following pages. The pages reflect the prayers, generosity, and inspirational words of so many people. I will never forget these people for helping me to accomplish one of the greatest singular achievements of my life. First, I have to thank my gracious major professor, Dr. Maxine Montgomery, for continuing to demonstrate that rigorous scholarship is always the easiest route to take on an academic journey. To my committee members Kathleen Erndl, David Johnson, and Dennis Moore for their encouraging words, thoughtful criticism, and time and attention during busy semesters. A very special thanks goes out to my family for forming a shell around me whenever I sensed an oncoming storm. Your calls, your notes, your smiles, and the laughter (oh, the LAUGHTER!) were an integral part of this process. Sharice (Sherry), Ardrell, Joe (Joey), Heather, Shanley, Langston, Benjamin, Momma, and Daddy - simply "saying" your names in this document makes it complete. To the English faculty at Florida A&M University, especially Emma Dawson, Jeneen Surrency, Lamar Garnes, and April McCray, thank you for the encouragement and guidance. You always knew when to step in when I needed you the most. To 2-1-1 Big Bend, Incorporated, especially Jocelyne Fliger, the miracles you perform every single day are breathtaking. Thanks for teaching me how to listen. iv Angela Frazier, Wendy Mack, Antonio Smith, Antiwan Walker, Richard Severe, Miderland Alexis, and David Blackmon your strong and sturdy shoulders have lifted me to see high places that I once feared were out of my vision. To Dr. David E. Mosley, my voice of reason, thanks for fostering a safe environment wherein I could search into the depths and muck of my existence and produce gems. Yakini Kemp, whenever I think of the terms " unapologetic intelligence," " astute professionalism," and "firm kindness," your image comes to my mind. It is hard to overstate the impact your presence has had on my life. To Talladega College and Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Incorporated, thank you for your history and the legacy of greatness you established for me. To Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church in Kingsland, Georgia, and Abundant Life and Restoration Ministries in Tallahassee, Florida, thanks for keeping my soul anchored. Finally, I thank God for the many Blessings that have been bestowed upon me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………vii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapters 1. “BUT MY LONELY IS MINE”: ACHIEVING FREEDOM AND A LIMINAL SPACE THROUGH BLACK FEMALE ORALITY IN TONI MORRISON’S SULA(1975) ............................................................................................................................................13 2. RELYING ON THE PAST TO IDENTIFY THE PRESENT: ORAL LORE AND RITUAL IN PAULE MARSHALL’S PRAISESONG FOR THE WIDOW (1983)………………………………………………………………………………….....40 3. (RE)LOCATING THE ‘DEBIL WOMAN’: USING ORALITY FOR TRANSCENDENCE AND A FREE ‘IN-BETWEEN’ SPACE IN SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS’S DESSA ROSE(1986)……………………………………………………………57 4. WHEN ORALITY IS THE ONLY MEANS OF SURVIVAL: RELYING ON THE BLUES FOR A LIBERATING AND TRANSCENDENT SPACE IN GAYL JONES’S CORREGIDORA(1975) …………………………………………………………………………………………....76 CONCLUSION…..............................................................................................................99 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………105 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH….......................................................................................115 vi ABSTRACT Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Sherley Anne Williams, and Gayle Jones are contemporary African American women novelists who are keenly aware of and genuinely concerned with Black women and their ability to define themselves. The authors know that Black women live very complex lives and that Black women have been historically removed from that process. Subsequently, their texts enlighten readers about Black women's desire for their own space, a place of refuge fled to by Black women in order to combat the social politics that lead to oppression. Their texts depict and speak to a relatively broad range of Black women's forms of objectification. Sula, Praisesong for the Widow, Dessa Rose, and Corregidora share similar concerns: How does the Black woman respond to an oppressive and patriarchal society? What anti-patriarchal practices are used to combat this oppression? What are some of the specific agents used by Black women implemented to maintain a defined Space? Is obvious accessibility the only reason folklore and vernacular speech are used as a means of self-definition? While many critics and scholars have identified the importance of Black women escaping oppression and objectification, what remains is a more in-depth analysis of the methods involved as the Black women work to define themselves in their own sovereign Space. vii INTRODUCTION Beginnings and endings may be the sustaining myths of the middle years; but in the fin de siecle, we find ourselves in the moment of transit where space and time cross to produce complex figures of difference and identity, past and present, inside and outside, inclusion and exclusion. -Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Sherley Anne Williams, and Gayle Jones are contemporary African American women novelists who are keenly aware of and genuinely concerned with Black women and their ability to define themselves. The authors know that Black women live very complex lives and that Black women have been historically removed from that process. Subsequently, their texts enlighten readers about Black women's desire for their own space, a place of refuge fled to by Black women in order to combat the social politics that lead to oppression. Their texts depict and speak to a relatively broad range of Black women's forms of objectification. In order to establish a foundation for my theory, it is necessary to first examine W.E.B Dubois' groundbreaking idea of double consciousness.1 In it, Dubois explains the result of the psycho-social pressure felt by Black people living in America. He writes: It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled 1 strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. (28) In this famous passage, Dubois has not only established himself as the leading Black intellectual regarding the racial issues of his time, but he also manages to fluently explain the perception of Black identity through the eyes of Black people. Robert B. Stepto seems to support this when he writes about Dubois' work, "the first substantial immersion narrative in the tradition; with its publication, all of the prefiguring forms and tropes that will develop another literary period are finally on display" (34). More specifically, Dubois’ theory reifies notions of a duality of between black and white, male and female, self and other, and good/bad. Where Dubois simply dichotomizes the existence of established structures relating to identity, Homi Bhabha (re)organizes the argument by suggesting that there is more of a fluidity of identity.2 Bhabha notes, The move away from the singularities of 'class' or 'gender' as primary conceptual and organizational categories, has resulted in an awareness of the subject positions - of race, gender, generation, institutional location, geopolitical locale, sexual orientation - that inhabit any claim to identity in the modern world. What is theoretically innovative, and politically crucial, is the need to think beyond narratives of originary and initial subjectivities and to focus on those moments or processes that are produced in the articulation of cultural differences. (1) 2 In what Bhabha calls Third Space, he moves identity