The repeating text : Signifyin(g), creolization and marronage in African diaspora womanist narratives

Authors

Paul Martin Codner, Florida International University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

English

First Advisor's Name

Carole Boyce-Davies

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Heather Andrade

Third Advisor's Name

Bruce Harvey

Date of Defense

9-13-2006

Abstract

This thesis studied African-American and Caribbean fiction using models of African diasporization, creolization and womanism to discover how those theoretics affected understandings of black subjectivities.

The diverse theoretics above-mentioned were examined to discover how their intersections enabled productive cross-fertilizations, notwithstanding differences. Black women's literary texts crossing diverse locations and experiences were examined. It was shown that their metadiscursivity enabled creative theorizations of creolization and African diasporization around the repeating text formulation. Their Eyes Were Watching God was analyzed as a prototypical womanist diasporic text, whose attributes were repeated and re-elaborated across various boundaries in Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home and No Telephone to Heaven.

This study found that African diaspora womanist texts and theoretics, unbounded by location, engaged each other in conversations and contestations, affirmed kinship beyond differences and challenged various hegemonies. It concluded that the repeating text expanded parameters of black literary criticism and theory.

Identifier

FI14060864

Recommended Citation

Codner, Paul Martin, "The repeating text : Signifyin(g), creolization and marronage in African diaspora womanist narratives" (2006). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2394.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2394