Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2.3, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, 30 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The paper is concerned with the depiction of black women's subjugation and resistance in fiction. It examines the quality of black women's suffering through racism and sexism, especially within the system of slavery in America from the 17th to the 19th century. Moreover, the paper contrasts black women's status in and after slavery. This is done, on the one hand, in order to illustrate and underline slavery's inhuman conditions black women suffered from and, on the other hand, to show the continuation of racism and sexism after slavery. It will be revealed that the assumed changes of conditions for black women nowadays are rather superficial and that discrimination and inequality, compared to men and white people, have been persisting. The study is based on the novels Beloved and Sula by Toni Morrison and on Maryse Cond 's novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. These three novels are selected as basis for the analysis because they depict black people's oppression in several forms, intensities and times and focus especially on women's particular situation. It will be discussed how Blacks were capable at all to endure and survive the physical and mental tortures of captivity in slavery or of discrimination and inequality after slavery. Connected with this question the role of the African culture is debated. Here, attention is turned to the authors' African roots and the question how (much) these roots inspired the elements of the actions and in what respect African tradition and beliefs are interwoven in the books. Being further backing aspects for the novels' women, human interpersonal relationships and collectivity are examined connected with a consideration of the novels' investigation and analysis of human nature, psyche and emotions. Here, the analysis focuses on quest

15 essays and two interviews that examine the work of West Indian writers living in Canada. The authors of these essays and interviews dissect issues of history, gender, power, identity and levels of discourse in moving scholars, researchers and students into arenas of study and critique of the West Indian Woman writer residing in Canada.

From the acclaimed author of Daughters and Brown Girl, Brownstones comes a “work of exceptional wisdom, maturity, and generosity, one in which the palpable humanity of its characters transcends any considerations of race or sex”(Washington Post Book World). Avey Johnson—a black, middle-aged, middle-class widow given to hats, gloves, and pearls—has long since put behind her the Harlem of her childhood. Then on a cruise to the Caribbean with two friends, inspired by a troubling dream, she senses her life beginning to unravel—and in a panic packs her bag in the middle of the night and abandons her friends at the next port of call. The unexpected and beautiful adventure that follows provides Avey with the links to the culture and history she has so long disavowed. “Astonishingly moving.”—Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review

This book explores the close association between the literary representation of historical trauma and the alternative narrative form of magical realism, underscoring the role of memory, empathy and imagination. It discusses the potential of magical realism to give a literary representation to individual and collective trauma arising from the Holocaust, slavery, and apartheid, and to turn those unspoken memories into narratives. It also analyses the role of magical realism in depicting trauma suffered by female victims during and following those events. Again, by dealing with the above-mentioned events, their specific historical context and universal meaning for humankind, this book highlights a universal experience of trauma.

The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid's most admired creations--available now in an e-book edition. Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to America to work as an au pair for a wealthy couple. She begins to notice cracks in their beautiful façade at the same time that the mysteries of own sexuality begin to unravel. Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new heroine who is destined to win a place of honor in contemporary fiction.

This study examines the Black Women's Renaissance (BWR) - the flowering of literary talent among African American women at the end of the 20th century. It focuses on the historical and heritage novels of the 1980s and the vexed relationship between black cultural nationalism and black feminism. It argues that when the nation seemingly fell out of fashion, black women writers sought to re-create what Renan called "a soul, a spiritual principle" for their ethnic group. BWR narratives, especially those associated with womanism, appreciated "culture bearing" mothers as cultural reproducers of the nation and transmitters of its values. In this way, the writers of the BWR gave rise to "matrifocal" cultural nationalism that superseded masculine cultural nationalism of the previous decade and made black women, instead of black men, principal agents/carriers of national identity. This monograph argues that even though matrifocal nationalism empowered women, ultimately it was a flawed project. It promoted gender and cultural essentialism, i.e. it glorified black motherhood and mother-daughter bonding and condemned other, more radical models of black female subjectivity. Moreover, the BWR, vivified by middle-class and educated black women, turned readers' attention from more contentious social issues, such as class mobility or wealth redistribution. The monograph compares the cultural nationalist novels of the 1980s with social protest novels written by the same authors in the 1970s and explains the rationale behind the change in their aesthetic and political agenda. It also contrasts novels written by womanist writers (Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor to name just a few) and by African Caribbean immigrant or second-generation writers (Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Jamaica Kincaid and Michelle Cliff) to show that, on the score of cultural nationalism, the BWR was not a monolithic phenomenon. African American and African Caribbean women writers collectively contributed to the flourishing of the BWR, but they did not share the same ideas on black identities, histories, or the question of ethnonational belonging.

Displacement and the Somatics of Postcolonial Culture is divided into three essays covering the refugee experience, colonization and decolonization, and intergenerational trauma.

Fresh takes on key questions in black performance and black popular culture, by leading artists, academics, and critics

Biographical note: Markus Nehl received his PhD from the Graduate School”Practices of Literature“at the University of Münster. His research interests include African American, Black Diaspora and Postcolonial Studies.