The undoing: examining the reconstruction of gender roles in African American literature, 2015
Hunter, Jacobi Le'ron
2010-2019
This thesis examines the reconstruction of male and female characters in African American literature set in the first half of the twentieth century. Nella Larsen's Passing, James Baldwin's Another Country, Toni Morrison's Sula, and Daniel Black's Perfect Peace all illustrate the emergence of transformed characters into traditional dimensions through gender role reversals. The focus of this study is to explore how the authors' characters reject societal norms in hopes of producing needed changes in their era. The environmental, social, and familial structures within the four novels create platforms for change within the stories. Larsen and Morrison develop female characters who are assigned stereotypically masculine traits, while, correspondingly, Baldwin and Black feminize men, ascribing to them traditional behaviors.
text
application/pdf
2015-12-01
thesis
Master of Arts (MA)
Clark Atlanta University
English
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2015_hunter_jacobi_l
