RE-MEMBERING TRAUMA IN THE FLESH LITERARY AND PERFORMATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF RACE AND GENDER IN THE AMERICAS by Sarah Soanirina Ohmer B.A., University of Houston, 2004 M.A., University of Houston, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Kenneth P. Dietrich Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Sarah Soanirina Ohmer It was defended on April 9, 2012 and approved by Dr. John Beverley, Distinguished Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dr. Hermann Herlinghaus, International Adjunct Faculty, Hispanic Languages and Literatures Dr. Shalini Puri, Associate Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Jerome Branche, Associate Professor of Latin American and Cultural Studies ii RE-MEMBERING TRAUMA IN THE FLESH LITERARY AND PERFORMATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF RACE AND GENDER IN THE AMERICAS Sarah Soanirina Ohmer, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 This dissertation explores transgenerational traumas of slavery, discrimination, social marginalization pertaining to women and youth of color. The analyses approach novels, testimonio, poetry and performances (1985-2005) with feminist, postcolonial, trauma studies, performance, and psychoanalytic criticism. The manuscript follows three avenues. First, I present a comparative analysis of three novels working through the “postmemory” of slavery. Then I analyze various literary genres that cope with wounded bodies and fragmented identities. This second avenue splits into three streets, exploring repressed sexuality, and naming and internal colonization. Finally, I explore urban youths’ performance. This last avenue stops at various intersections to look at different dances and songs that heal urban youths and help them to affirm their own voices. With a postcolonial approach to trauma studies, Chapter one connects re-membering with storytelling and ghost embodiment. I observe how “neo-abolitionist” novels heal past traumas in Beloved by Toni Morrison, Ponciá Vicencio by Conceição Evaristo, and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé. Chapter two discusses how texts work through violated maternity, fragmented identity and repressed sexuality. I compare scenes from the novels with the testimonios Reyita: The Life of a Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century (María de los Reyes Castillo) and Borderlands/La Frontera (Gloria Anzaldúa), and with poems from selected Quilombhoje Collective’s “Cadernos Negros” volumes. This concludes the first section on re- iii membering trauma in writing. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss re-membering trauma through performance. Turning to documentaries on dance and music, I analyze performance that promotes self-esteem and agency for/by marginalized youths from Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro. The last two chapters include José Junior’s Da Favela para o mundo: A historia do grupo cultural AfroReggae, documentaries RIZE (David LaChapelle) and Favela Rising (Matt Mochary and Jeff Zymbalist), and the music album Nenhum Motivo Explica a Guerra (AfroReggae). Any artwork presents the potential to heal trauma and its painful portrayal may be difficult to confront. The texts here present struggles against discrimination and selective amnesia bound to questions of race, socio-economic marginalization, and gender. They suggest resolutions through narrative re-membering—retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... IX 1.0 RE-MEMBERING TRAUMA IN THE FLESH ....................................................... 2 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Project Overview ........................................................................................... 2 1.1.2 Trauma and Healing: Shaping Concepts .................................................. 21 1.1.2.1 Witnessing Trauma and Embodied Memory as Healing ................ 21 1.1.2.2 Healing Narratives: An Interdisciplinary Concept .......................... 25 1.1.3 Analyses of Trauma and Healing: An Outline ......................................... 33 2.0 RE-MEMBERING TRAUMA AND “GHOSTWRITING” IN NEO- ABOLITIONIST BELOVED, I TITUBA BLACK WITCH OF SALEM, AND PONCIÁ VICENCIO ................................................................................................................................... 39 2.1 TITUBA, PONCIÁ, AND BELOVED: NEO-ABOLITIONIST NOVELS OF “GHOSTWRITING” OR GHOST STORIES ................................................................. 64 2.2 RETHINKING TRAUMA STUDIES .............................................................. 72 2.2.1 Re-membering Trauma Through Communal Storytelling: Beloved ..... 80 2.2.2 “Should I Suffer Twice?” Tituba’s Haunting .......................................... 89 2.2.3 Ponciá Vicencio’s Sculpting Cure.............................................................. 95 2.3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 104 v 3.0 RECOVERING OUR SHATTERED BODIES: NAMES, MIRRORS AND WOMBS ……………………………………………………………………………………….109 3.1 “WHAT’S IN A NAME?” (ANTI) NAMING AND POST-SLAVERY SHOCK… .......................................................................................................................... 130 3.1.1 “Eu-Mulher/ I-Woman” and Pre-Naming ............................................. 132 3.1.2 “B-E-L-O-V-E-D” and Naming a Collectivity ....................................... 134 3.1.3 “TI-TU-BA” and Personal Immortality ................................................. 137 3.1.4 “Suggs, Baby Suggs.” Making Acceptance Her Own. ........................... 139 3.1.5 “Denver,” or Hope of Solidarity and Freedom ...................................... 141 3.1.6 Ponciá Vicencio and the Frustration of Post-Slavery Naming ............. 142 3.1.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 148 3.2 AND NOW WE SEE: MIRRORS OF INTERNAL COLONIZATION .... 150 3.2.1 Quilombhoje Writers Working Through Internal Colonization in Brazil…. .................................................................................................................... 155 3.2.2 Gloria Anzaldúa: “Entering Into the Serpent” in Southwest Texas .... 158 3.2.3 Reyita: Becoming Within Her Cuban Home .......................................... 167 3.3 RAPED OF THEIR MOTHERHOOD? ........................................................ 181 3.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 202 4.0 HEALING IN URBAN SPACES OF EXCEPTION ............................................ 206 4.1 FROM QUILOMBO TO FAVELA, FROM RANCH TO GHETTO ........ 240 4.2 LOOKING FOR WAYS OUT IN BOCAS SEM SAÍDA .............................. 252 4.3 “GENOCIDE,” “AFFECTIVE MARGINALITIES,” AND A POSSIBILITY OF LIFE. ........................................................................................................................... 260 vi 5.0 YOUTHS HEAL IN PERFORMANCE: AFRO REGGAE AND KRUMP/CLOWNING ............................................................................................................. 286 5.1 REPRESENTING ‘ILL’ COMMUNITIES: RIZE AND FAVELA RISING…. ......................................................................................................................... 289 5.2 WORKING THROUGH TRAUMA WITH PERFORMANCE ................. 299 5.3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 322 6.0 CONCLUSION. RE-MEMBERING DIASPORA IN THE FLESH ................... 324 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 342 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. “Seja Marginal, Seja Herói.” Hélio Oiticica (1986). .............................................. 274 viii PREFACE My research topic was a personal choice. I wanted to write about healing and research theory that could apply to daily life. For supporting such an uncommon approach, I thank Dr. Herlinghaus, whose mentoring helped me to challenge orthodox methods, and reminded me that there was “more to life than just rainbows,” that healing came after trauma. I had a personal topic, but my corpus was as scattered as my background. Latin Americanists tend to focus on a corpus of literature from their corresponding nation. Studying a field foreign to my family, my ancestors, and myself, race was a strong connecting point that I could, but—and this was hard to realize for me—I refused to discuss. Yet as I read and re-read novels and theory by women of color throughout the Americas, I found their texts spoke more to me than others. I related to their struggle, their spirituality, their connection with Mother Earth, and their optimism. For arriving to this realization, I thank Dr. Jerome Branche, whose mentoring and academic challenges guided me to accept the urgency of Afro-Latin American studies. His careful revisions grounded my argument and helped me earn confidence as a scholar in comparative and transnational race studies. I connect deeply with many texts, yet rarely do I get to meet the inspiring voices I read. For teaching me to read