“UP ABOVE MY HEAD”: GOSPEL MUSIC AND THE SONIC FICTIONS OF BLACK WOMANHOOD IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE Kimberly Gibbs Burnett A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature in the Graduate School. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Danielle Christmas Florence Dore GerShun Avilez Glenn Hinson Candace Epps-Robertson ©2020 Kimberly Gibbs Burnett ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Kimberly Burnett: “Up Above My Head”: Gospel Music and the Sonic Fictions of Black Womanhood in TWentieth-Century African American Literature (Under the direction of Dr. Danielle Christmas) DraWing from DuBois’s Souls of Black Folk (1903), which highlighted the Negro spirituals as a means of documenting the existence of a soul for an African American community culturally reduced to their bodily functions, gospel music figures as a reminder of the narrative of black women’s struggle for humanity and of the literary markers of a black feminist ontology. As the attention to gospel music in texts about black women demonstrates, the material conditions of poverty and oppression did not exclude the existence of their spiritual value—of their claim to humanity that was not based on conduct or social decorum. At root, this project seeks to further the scholarship in sound and black feminist studies— applying concepts, such as saturation, break, and technology to the interpretation of black womanhood in the vernacular and cultural recordings of gospel in literature. Further, this dissertation seeks to offer neW historiography of black female development in tWentieth century literature—one which is shaped by a sounding culture that took place in choir stands, on radios in cramped kitchens, and on stages all across the nation. By reconstructing a genealogy of black female subjectivity through the gaze of gospel music, this dissertation represents the first book-length examination of gospel music in African American literature from the 1940s to 1970s. Novels, such as The Third Life of Grange Copeland and Tambourines to Glory, demonstrate that poor, black women were all too often trapped by the exigencies of poverty, iii motherhood, and sexual exploitation, however there is little textual consideration of how these conditions were counteracted culturally or to imagine how these women escaped their liminality to claim a more integrated subjectivity. Significantly, this period marked a moment in which a neW generation of young black women (many of whom had not received an education beyond the eighth grade) were creating neW lives in the urban landscape. By tracing the lives of Working-class women in the literary tradition of this period, this dissertation again brings to critical examination those values transmitted through, what Alexander Weheliye calls, a sounding culture—that is, a culture that privileged orality and listening. Not only did the cultural and textual reproduction of gospel signal an embodiment of black female identity in neW ways, but it also pointed to an embedded national conversation about the meaning and value of black Women in the United States. Counter to the myth born in slavery of black women, Whether as domestics or sexual objects of male desire, gospel music offered an alternate pathway that a more integrated identity that reasserted their value. In this dissertation, I introduce an alternate understanding of black Womanhood based on several key characteristics introduced through gospel music— namely modernization, commercialization, and embodiment. These concepts serve not only as a basis for understanding the history of gospel, but they also function to expand the lens through black Women are heard in the text. Whereas the critical interpretive gaze often lacks the vocabularies through which to interpret such performances, this dissertation offers a re- reading and interpretation of the critical use of gospel in African American literature. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Danielle Christmas, for her guidance and tireless support for my work as a scholar. I know that this project would not have been completed without her mentorship and advocacy. I would like to thank Dr. GerShun Avilez for his astute critical feedback on this project throughout various stages and his dedication as a mentor. And I would like to thank Dr. Glenn Hinson for sharing his immense knowledge of gospel music With me and for his continuous support of this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Florence Dore and Dr. Candace Epps-Robertson for their valuable insight and encouraging support along the way. I would not have been able to complete my PhD research without the generous funding support of the Department of English and Comparative Literature Teaching Fellowship, the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship, the Bahr Travel Grant, and the D.K. Wilgus Fellowship in Comparative Ballad and Folk Song Study. I am grateful to the UNC Library Southern Historical Collection, the Schomburg Center, and the Duke Music Library for the use of valuable gospel recordings and archival data. My doctoral program has been shaped by many mentors, scholars, and friends whose support has been invaluable. I would like to express my appreciation to the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Who opened the door for my PhD study. I Would like to thank my professors and mentors over the years—Dr. William AndreWs, Dr. Trudier Harris, Dr. Mae Henderson, Dr. James Coleman, Dr. v Rebecka Rutledge Fisher, Dr. Jerma Jackson, Dr. Minrose GWin, and Dr. Jennifer Ho—Who have helped to shape me as a scholar. I also would like to thank my colleagues and friends— Andréa Williams, John Hannah, Mary Alice Kirkpatrick, Kinitra Brooks, and Kara Olive—Who helped to make this time all the more enjoyable. I am especially grateful to my family, for my mom and dad (Reverend Nathaniel Gibbs, Sr. and Mrs. Bessie Gibbs) and my siblings—Nate, Greg, Sabriena, Ken and Quentin—Who have loved and supported me, and most of all, prayed for me. And lastly, I would like to thank my husband, Otis, and my sons, Braxton and Bryce, for their graciousness in supporting me and for cheering me on when I needed it most. At the core, this project is about the ways in which gospel music helped to shape the thought life and black feminist praxis for black women in modern literature and culture. I know that it did for me. Growing up, listening to gospel music was not only part of my experience in the black church, but it also became part of my lexicon. I learned to emulate the performances. In some ways, this dissertation is an ode to all the women who taught me what black womanhood Was. Most of all, this project is a tribute to my mother, Bessie Marsh Gibbs, who was my first and greatest teacher. Finally, I am thankful to God without whom this dream would not be possible. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ ix INTRODUCTION: THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG: RE-RECORDING BLACK WOMANHOOD IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF GOSPEL .................................................. 1 The Problem of Hearing ...................................................................................................... 2 Models of Interpretation ...................................................................................................... 6 Chapter Summaries ............................................................................................................. 9 Reconstructing Afro-Sonic Feminist Stye ......................................................................... 12 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER ONE: HEARING BETWEEN THE LINES: THE DOUBLE-VOCALITY OF GOSPEL, BLACK WOMANHOOD, AND AFRO-SONIC FEMINIST THEORY ....... 14 Gospel Is…and Gospel Ain’t ............................................................................................ 15 Gospel as Sonic Apparatus ................................................................................................ 25 Hearing BetWeen the Lines: Afro-Sonic Feminist Criticism ............................................ 37 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER TWO: GOSPEL ECONO-MIX AND THE BLACKNESS OF BLACK PERFORMANCE IN THE BREAK OF LANGSTON HUGHES’S TAMBOURINES TO GLORY ....................................................................................................................... 43 The Blackness of Black Theater ........................................................................................ 44 The Tradition of Gospel on Broadway .............................................................................. 56 Negotiating Black Female Subjectivity ............................................................................. 63 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 74 CHAPTER THREE: “CAN I GET A WITNESS?”: ON BLACK FEMALE BEING AND UNBECOMING IN MAYA ANGELOU’S I KNOW WHY vii THE CAGED BIRD SINGS .............................................................................................