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MCNEIL, NICENE, M.A., DECEMBER 2020 English REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK AUTONOMY IN SELECTED WORKS OF BLACK FICTION (90 pp.) Thesis Advisor: Babacar M’Baye This thesis explores the ways in which Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Lorraine Hansberry represent Black autonomous living in their texts. I begin by breaking down the theoretical leanings behind the assertions made in this thesis, starting with Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington. I move on to a discussion of Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collin, wherein I use her tenets to qualify Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Bluest Eye, and A Raisin In The Sun as being works that fit solidly into the Black feminist thought tradition. After identifying scholars who have done cornerstone work in this field and establishing the theory behind the thesis, I dive into a discussion of the texts. In the first chapter, I focus on Hurston’s piece, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). In it I use the text as well as pieces of non-fiction also written by Hurston to breakdown her thinking on integration and Black autonomy. The subsequent chapter centers Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970). Here, I pay attention to the way Morrison concentrates on the interiority of Black women and girls by allowing their voices to stand as the focal point of her piece. Morrison’s piece allows readers to understand the “American Dream” as something that was meant, primarily for white folks and I use the scholarship of Ta-Nehisi Coates to undergird these assertions. Finally, the Hansberry chapter examines A Raisin In The Sun (1958). This chapter directly deals with the issue of segregation and autonomous living. By using the text as well as secondary and outside scholarly resources, I show the ways and reasons behind Hansberry offering viewpoints that seem to be contrary to the crux and conclusion of the play. REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK AUTONOMY IN SELECTED WORKS OF BLACK LITERATURE A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Nicene R. McNeil December 2020 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Nicene Rebecca McNeil B.A., The University of Akron, 2016 M.A., Kent State University, 2020 Approved by _______________________________, Advisor Babacar M’Baye _______________________________, Chair, Department of English Babacar M’Baye _______________________________, Interim Dean, Arts and Sciences Mandy Munro-Stasiuk TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………………...iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………v CHAPTERS I. Introduction: Understanding the Theoretical Underpinnings of Autonomous Black Living…………………………………………………………………………….1 II. Segregating Ourselves: Zora Neale Hurston’s Take on Black Autonomy As Seen In Their Eyes Were Watching God and Selected Works………………………...13 a. Becoming “Raced” in the Everglades……………………………………….19 b. Hurston v. Brown v. Board…………………………………………………..23 III. Blackness and White Intrusion in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye……………..29 a. The Danger of Disinterested Violence……………………………………….31 b. White Intrusion on Black Spaces…………………………………………….33 c. “Where’s Polly”?…………………………………………………………….40 d. Sins of the Father.............................................................................................45 IV. Privileging an Unattainable Dream: Black Autonomous Living in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun………………………………………………..50 a. An Unavoidable Problem: Gender and Autonomy in A Raisin In The Sun…51 b. Challenging Assimilationist Values: Beneatha………………………………57 c. The Problem: Socioeconomic Considerations……………………………….60 V. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….77 VI. Works Cited……………………………………………………………………...81 iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, I must extend my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Professor Babacar M’Baye. Thank you for believing in me and being so understanding when it came to time. You reassured me when I was on the right path and offered constructive criticism when I was not, and for that I am grateful. Without your encouragement this thesis would never have come to fruition. To my thesis committee, Professor Tammy Clewell, and Professor Wesley Raabe, thank you both for agreeing to be on my team! I learned so much in all of your respective classes that it is difficult to quantify it. Dr. Clewell you taught me how to read, appreciate, and dissect a graphic novel (even newspaper comics will never be the same), and Dr. Raabe you taught me how to manage my time at a graduate level and how to pursue my goals in a serious way. I am forever grateful. I would not be where I am without the help of Dr. Philathia Bolton from The University of Akron. Without you I never would have had the courage to pursue my dreams because I never would have known they were possible! Your Black Literature class opened doors for me that I didn’t know were there. All three of the pieces that I focused on in this thesis were first put into my hands by you. Thank you for trail blazing that path. I thank my fellow Kent State graduate students, past and present; you all have made this journey a little bit easier and for that I am thankful. To David Kohl, especially, the laughs we shared during the difficult times of this MA program made it all worth it, and my thesis would not be the same had it not been for your feedback during the process. To my friends, especially Faith and Réyna, thank you for encouraging me through this whole journey, you’ll never know how much it means to me. v Finally, I would like to thank my family. To my parents—it’s been a wild ride but we made it! Thanks for the undying support and the unconditional love. To my sisters, Nicole and Lauren, thank you both believing in me so deeply and for the encouragement you have given me. Last, but not least, Trinity. You have literally been there for every high and low of my thesis writing, and even when I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could give up you let me know that that was not an option. You’ve been my biggest cheerleader and this thesis would have never made it off the ground if it wasn’t for you. This acknowledgment isn’t nearly enough but, thank you all!! vi Introduction: Understanding the Theoretical Underpinnings of Autonomous Black Living Just about as long as racism has existed within the fabric of the United States there has been literature to accompany it that has served as a companion to history. When large social changes have occurred there is, undoubtedly, a writer who will take in the movements of the moment and turn them into art. The same is true of the post-reconstruction era, Jim Crow segregation era, and the Civil Rights era. Beyond the art itself lies the scholars who have carried on a conversation surrounding the art and its significance to the culture and beyond. At the center of many of these conversations around race is the underlying search for autonomy and ultimately the ascertaining of the American Dream. This thesis explores representations of Black autonomy as it is presented by specific pieces of Black literature. These pieces of literature being Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun (1958). This thesis seeks not only to display what it is that the authors were trying to make of what happens when there are circumstances that produce instances of racial exclusivity but also the consequences of what happens when whiteness is imposed upon these spaces. Within these texts, the individual authors’ idea of autonomy and the American Dream are found, and though the supposed methods of attaining this dream may have been different for each, they are all reaching for similar goals of autonomy. The problem that I have identified and that is being addressed by my thesis is the expectation of Black assimilation into white American culture by way of integration and, therefore, integration being hailed as the solution to racism starting at the residential level. The secondary problem, then, is the longstanding expectation that 1 in order to receive the advantages of full personhood, Black people must be consumed into white society. Along with this expectation comes the ironic reluctance of whites to allow Blacks to participate in their society fully while simultaneously interrupting instances of Black autonomy. Amidst the vast sea of scholarship that focuses on the fight for autonomy that Black folks have carried on in the United States and elsewhere, is that which was produced by W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Booker T. Washington in the early 20th century set the tone and stood as the basis from which other scholarship flowed. More often than not the conversation surrounding the works of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois centers their theoretical differences and emphasizes the major points of diversion in their philosophies, however, they ultimately were aiming towards the same goal and a thorough study of their ideals and opinions reveals this. In The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois establishes himself as an integrationist, which can best be described as one who aims to combine the minority and the majority as seamlessly as possible. In his piece, he details his experiences interacting with Black folks from the south while also giving readers a look into his own life. It is here that he not only detailed his ideas about who the ruling class should be among Black folks (the Talented Tenth) but also where he introduced the concept of double consciousness and “the veil’ which set the foundations for modern conversations about race and how it is experienced and internalized. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness is bred at the residential boundaries forged between Black and white worlds, which, in a literal sense, is referring to Blacks and whites living in close proximity to each other but socially separate.

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