"Anchored in Time": The U.S. South as a "Place" of Gendered Racial Memory in Ernest J. Gaines's Fiction Público
Baker, Chante (2010)
Published
Abstract
Drawing upon discourses emerging from literary studies, gender
studies, and
American historiography, this dissertation examines the ways in
which Ernest J. Gaines
situates black men's particular memories of and experiences in the
U.S. South as
important to their formation of a gendered racial consciousness.
Focusing on his 1964
novel, Catherine Carmier, chapter one analyzes how Gaines
uses the gendered racial
memories of the Carmier family patriarch, Raoul, to dramatize how
black Creoles' claims
to exclusivity were challenged by demands for group solidarity in
1960s America. Gaines
also uses the memories and experiences of other Carmier family
members to
problematize the idea that issues of blood and southern history are
exclusively limiting to
one's racial consciousness. Chapter two explores In My Father's
House (1978) as a
critique of the ideological tensions that existed during the civil
rights and black power
eras, especially the effectiveness of interracial coalition
building and non-violence, and
the utility of black militancy as a defense strategy. Interactions
between several male
characters in the novel illustrate the impact of these debates on
constructions of southern
black manhood and on African American men's interpersonal
relationships. Recognizing
Gaines's continued exploration of the Civil Rights and Black Power
Movements in A
Gathering of Old Men (1983), chapter three contends that black
men's particular
memories of their southern experiences inspire them to redefine the
ideological tenets of
both eras in redemptive, self-affirming ways. Chapter four
consolidates the insights
gleaned from the previous chapters, culminating in a discussion of
specific sites of
African American men's memory, instruction, and transformation
within the "place" of
the U.S. South in A Lesson Before Dying (1993). Exploring
gendered racial memory in
Gaines's work not only builds upon existing scholarship on his
writings but also provides
a useful framework for further discussions of the complexities of
black identity presented
in African American literature, in general, and in black men's
fiction specifically.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line: Gendered Racial Memory of the
U.S. South in African
American
Literature…………………….…………………………………………………1
Chapter 1: "The House Was Haunted": Creole Identity and Gendered
Racial Memory in
Catherine
Carmier……………………….……………………………………………....20
Chapter 2: "A Black Man's Conference": Civil Rights, Black Power,
and Black
Masculinity in In My Father's
House………………………………...………………….66
Chapter 3: "A Day of Reckonding": The "Power" of Black Men's
Memories in A
Gathering of Old
Men…………...…………...…………………………………………115
Chapter 4: "How a (Black) Man Should Live": Southern "Places" of
Memory, Instruction
and Transformation in A Lesson Before
Dying………………….………..…………….160
Foundational Moments: Gendered Racial Memory in Black Men's
Literature…..……207
Works
Cited………………………………………………………………………….…213
Notes……………………………………………………………………………….…...226
About this Dissertation
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GRADUATE SCHOOL FRONT MATTER.doc () | 2018-08-28 12:01:04 -0400 |
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