Date of Award
Spring 2019
Document Type
Thesis Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Chairperson
Cherise Pollard, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Michael Burns, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Andrew Sargent, Ph.D.
Abstract
This project consists of three contextualized literary analysis of Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings (1979), Gayl Jones’ Corregidora (1975) and Octavia Butler’s
Kindred (1979). Through an examination of these neo-slave narratives, this project privileges the voices of three African American women who reflect upon the horrors of slavery through critical reconstructions of the past. Each of these historical novels delves into the dark secrets of slavery calling America’s production of history and memory into question. Sally Hemings, Corregidora and Kindred creatively counter “all the myths and stereotypes used to characterize black womanhood” (hooks, Ain’t I a Woman 86). By reclaiming representation of black women’s experience, each of these texts reveals the humanity of those who were doubly-bound by race and sex. Given their authors’ intentions, Sally Hemings, Corregidora and Kindred can be classified as black feminist recovery projects. Rooted in feminist and post-colonial theory, this project seeks to expose “the grandest [delusion] of all”: the myth of American exceptionalism (Whitehead 291).
Recommended Citation
Myers, Ruth, "The Grandest Delusion, Exposed: Reimagining Slavery in Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings, Gayl Jones’ Corregidora and Octavia Butler’s Kindred" (2019). West Chester University Master’s Theses. 72.
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_theses/72