Durham E-Theses Gloria Naylor's colours in the patchwork quilt of African American ction Jia, Lisa Lau EE How to cite: Jia, Lisa Lau EE (1999) Gloria Naylor's colours in the patchwork quilt of African American ction, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4400/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk GLORIA NAYLOR'S COLOURS IN THE PATCHWORK QUILT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION. LISA LAU EE JIA M.A. BY THESIS UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH STUDIES 1999 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author an information derived from it should be acknowledged. »2 if-j_.. GLORIA NAYLOR'S COLOURS IN THE PATCHWORK. QUILT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION. M.A. THESIS BY LISA LAU EE JIA. 1999. Abstract This thesis undertakes to examine Gloria Naylor's contributions to and continuation of the African American literary tradition. "Lead on with light little Mama."^ The following chapters will explore and identify Naylor's key concerns and the issues she grapples with as a feminist, a novelist, and an African American woman of this time and age. Naylor's writings are juxtaposed with other associated texts, namely the writings of her predecessors and contemporaries. Such comparisons serve to contextualise Naylor's work, and more, to highlight the intertextuality within it, an intertextuality which heretofore had not been possible given the lumted availability of Uterary works by African American women writers before the 1970s. The stiucture and form of Naylor's work are discussed in this thesis as are also the issues of women bonding, socio-econoinic oppression of proletaiian women, the homogenisation of middle-class African Americans into the wider American society, women's sexuality, the language of women, "de• my thification", and the recasting of female chaiacters in the retelling of tales. Although a feminist, Naylor has taken the unprecedented course of devoting her latest novel to the motivations, limitations and grievances of African American men, and consequently, one chapter in this thesis is also devoted to a study of black men, with emphasis on the male characters in Naylor's five novels. Naylor is as much a product as she is a part of the African American literary tradition, especially that of its women writers. The following is a study of the writings of a true daughter of African American literature, and increasingly, a young mother of the same. "Lead on. with light. Little Mama." ' Gloria Naylor, Mama Day (1988. New York: Vintaee Contemporaries, 1993) 117 ~ Ibid. Acknowledgements Deepest gratitude and warmest thanks are due to: • Dr D. CoUecott, who supervised this thesis with patient guidance and invaluable ideas and instruction; • The Lau Family, whose support has been manijold and constant, thus providing the backbone to this thesis; • P. Barker, who generously granted an interview and permitted me access to her correspondence with Gloria Naylor; • Dr R. DlK, for his kind assistance with the bibliography; • E. Lau, for procuring and Jorwarding vital materials with loving promptitude; • S. Gill, for his beauty of language and meticulous prooj reading; • D. Goldman ^ J. Hix, for the present of Mama Day and the introduction to Gloria Naylor's novels; • K. Gunasekera, for helping me rise above mental ruts on the journey of this thesis, and J^or providing the sunshine all the way. To all above and all others who have contributed in one significant way or another, thank you, thank you,thank you. Ill "When did it happen -- this kind of blooming from pale to gold? ...And now she strides so proud, a sunjlower against the brown arms over hers, the sweat /lowing Trom the reddish gold hair and absorbing every bit of available light to Jling it back against those high cheekbones, down the collar bone, on to the line of the pelvis, pressing against the thin summer cotton. The lean thighs, tight hips, the long strides flashing light between the blur of strong legs -- pure black."^ Gloria Naylor, Mama Day (1988. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1993) 48. IV The abbreviations used are as Jollows: The Women of Brewster Place WJB Linden Hills LH Mama Day MD Bailey's Caje BC The Men of Brewster Place MB Union Street US The Street Street Contents: Pg Preliminary Words l "... oranges, reds, blxies. greens ... golds ..." 1 "... overlapping circles ..." 3 The coloxirs of Gloria Naylor 10 Chapter One. The Women oj Brewster Place 17 Literary Inheritance 17 Narrative Strategies 23 Union Street U> The Women of Brewster Place 29 Side by Side 29 The Sisterhood of Women 30 The Trap 35 Diffusing the Poison 45 Distinctive Voices 49 The Men 56 Dusk 62 Chapter Two: Linden Hills 63 Predecessors 63 Echoing Dante's Injerno 75 Narrative Strategies 78 The "de-edened" Nedeed 85 The Language of Women 89 Morals in Conclusions and Destinies 104 Chapter Three: Bailey's Cefe 111 Overview 111 The Cefe 114 VI Defamiliarisation 120 Reconstruction by Retelling 125 "Not unknowing accomplices" 141 Ghapter Four: The Men of Brewster Place 148 The Silence of Black Men 151 The Soul Music of Black Men 156 The Sins and Sons of Black Men 158 The Sexuality of Black Men 164 The Secrets of Black Men 169 The Struggles of Black Men 171 The Social Black Man 174 The Sorrows of Black Men 177 The Sacrament of Black men - and Black Women 179 A Jew added thoughts... 180 Bibliography 185 Preliminary Words "The rings lay on a solid backing of cotton flannel; from a distance it looks like she's bending over a patch of sand at the bottom of the bluff when it's caught the first rays of a spring moon -- an evening cream. The overlapping circles start out as gold on the edge and melt into oranges, reds, blues, greens, and then back into golds for the middle of the quilt."(MD 137) No one who has read Mama Day could possibly forget the magnificent double-ring quilt sewn by Miranda and Abigail, the fantastic gallimaufry of colours and textures caught up in the quilt, etched on the imagination of the reader thiough the richness of Naylor's words. This quilt was not created merely to be a wedding present, but a family heirloom, partly made to celebrate the fact that there will be further generations, and partly made to be passed down through a line of Day-women. The description of the quilt in Mama Day is representative of Naylor's writing, concerned as it is with womanist matters, African American traditions (both literary and physical), and the sheer beauty of language. "... oranges, reds, blues, greens ... golds Quilting is a time-honoured art-form of African American women, one of the few practised and permitted during the days of slavery. It is a method of ' MD 137. Preliminary words expression as well as a visual representation of the collaborative efforts of the women. It has been noted by many critics that the combination of beauty and utility of patchwork quilts perfectly reflects the suppressed but unstifled creativity of African Americans, a creativity severely limited by the weary, ceaseless practicalities and necessities of day-to-day living. As Alice Walker commented, a quilter was "an artist who left her mark in the only materials she could afford, and in the only medium her position in society allowed her to use." With a bitter history of having only been entitled to the leftovers of the American society, it has become a matter of pride with African Americans that that which others have deemed useless and discarded is rescued and transformed into articles of beauty and value. Quilting, therefore, has passed into African American literary tradition as a symbol of the resourcefulness and resilience of a race, a testimony to the African American art of improvisation, transformation and survival. Metaphorically speaking, the work of African American women writers can also be said to form a patchwork quilt. The literary patchwork quilt of these remarkable women had been growing since Phyllis Wheatley laid the first piece down, and since then, the different novelists, poets, and dramatists have been contiibuting their pieces from a rainbow spectrum of colours and textures. They have drawn their inspiration from the women before them and around them, and from their own secret and suppressed fears and fancies, hopes and dreams. ^ Alice Walker, In Search Of Our Mothers' Gardens (1967. San Diego: Harcourt, 1983) 239. Preliminary words Taking all these which others had disparaged and denied the worth of, the African American women writers have sewn together a picture of their Uves as Americans, Americans of colour, and above all, as female African Americans. It is no coincidence that Naylor incorporates quilting in Mama Day. Being well acquainted with the literary themes and traditions of her predecessors, Naylor is able to draw upon their work as well as upon the effects of their work.