Dismantling and (Re) constructing notions of masculinity and femininity in African women literature, 2011
Johnson, Larry D., Jr.
2010-2019
This study examines gender (re)presentation in three carefully selected works: Brown Girl, Brownstones; The Color Purple; and When Rocks Dance. Employing the scholarship of women writers of the Diaspora, I contend that the works dismantle and (re)construct gender identities. Where traditional notions of sexuality depict men as masculine and women as feminine, this analysis interrogates and subverts the traditiona paradigm. Methodologically, the dissertation combines literary analysis, post-colonial studies, and gender schema theory into an interdisciplinary approach. I begin by exploring gender construction to establish a theoretical perspective for characters who reject traditional heteronormative paradigms. I then extend recent critical discussions on gender and post-colonialism by examining the relationships between the men and women in each literary text. I contend that traditional notion of characters as homosexual or lesbian is dismantled and (re)constructed, thereby resulting in characters who embrace their femininity or masculinity in a more balanced construction of personality, which is the key to their self-actualization.
text
application/pdf
2011-05-01
dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Clark Atlanta University
School of Arts and Sciences
Montgomery, Georgene Bess Duncan, Charles Vinyard, Alma
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2011_johnson_larry_d
