Historians have had much to say about the slave family of the nineteenth century South; it has been the focus of a lively debate for nearly three decades, much of it over the relative stability or instability of the black family under slavery and the degree to which it was matrifocal. They have not, however, utilized to a large degree in reference to the United States slave community and its household and family development the kinds of analytical procedures popularized by the Cambridge Group in England and employed internationally by demographic historians This dissertation presents a study of household composition among rural slaves of Louisiana. The first chapter approximates slave organizational structure through the construction of a model to which other slave populations can be contrasted. This model is based on a sample of 155 slave communities form 1810-1865, representing 10,329 slaves residing in major slaveholding parishes. The records, generally inventories, were gathered from archives, parish records, and private collections. The primary criterion in the selection of communities for the sample was that a firm indication of family and household divisions was provided. The lists were transcribed, computerized, and analyzed according to standard definitions of family household types and the various subcategories within those types. The results of the experiment were further described according to variations existing among the sampled communities according to time, place, and size The major objective of this study was to determine the structure of a large number of Louisianans in bondage, but statistical analysis alone could not provide information on the dynamics of change within these communities except in broad outline. Only an intensive study of several slave communities over time could assess the developmental patterns which are inevitably reflected in domestic arrangements. The latter section of the dissertation is composed of three in-depth case studies of Louisiana slave communities and analyzes how their household structures developed and changed according to internal and external factors. The conclusion summarizes the findings emanating from the larger statistical study and the case studies / acase@tulane.edu

Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer and experience worse survival than whites possibly because blacks receive fewer mammograms. To investigate whether regular mammography use can explain the observed black-white difference in stage at diagnosis and survival, we undertook a study using the Linked Medicare-Tumor Registry Database The study sample included black and white women age $\ge$67 diagnosed with breast cancer, from 1987-1989, in three Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results tumor registries. Women were classified based on their mammography use during the 2 years before diagnosis: nonusers (no prior mammograms), regular users (at least 2 mammograms at least 10 months apart), or peri-diagnosis users (only mammogram(s) within 3 months before diagnosis). Stage was classified as early (in situ/local) or late (regional/distant). Women whose mammography use could not be categorized (n = 292) or whose disease was unstaged (n = 141) were excluded Mean age at diagnosis for the 4,005 women was 76, 4% were black, 37% married, and 16% lived in an area with a median income $<$ $15,000; 48\% resided in Connecticut, 35\% in Seattle, and 17\% in Atlanta. One-quarter (23\%) of women were nonusers, 19\% regular users, and 58\% peri-diagnosis users of mammography. One-third of women were diagnosed with late-stage disease. Blacks were more likely to be nonusers of mammography (OR = 3.0, 95\% CI 2.4--3.8) and were more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage disease (OR = 2.5, 95\% CI 1.6--4.0) than whites. This black-white difference is related to mammography use in that blacks who were nonusers were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage disease than black regular users (OR = 6.7, 95\% CI 1.8--27.4); and that blacks and whites who were users were diagnosed at a similar stage (OR = 1.05, 95\% CI 0.3--3.4). Prior mammography use explained nearly 30\% of the excess late-stage disease among blacks. Blacks experienced a higher risk of death relative to whites (RR = 1.5, 95\% CI 1.1--2.1). Prior mammography use reduced the estimated relative risk of black race to (RR = 1.3, 95\% 0.9--1.8) Black women benefit from regular mammography use by being diagnosed with earlier stage disease. These findings suggest that differences in breast cancer outcomes is not strongly linked to race, but is rather an issue of whether a woman receives regular mammograms / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation will trace the representation of marginal feminine subjects in literary narratives produced in Puerto Rico in the nineties to see whether the peripheral position provides a space in which the feminine Puerto Rican subject can de-center and de-stabilize the dominant discourses of the West The discourse of miscegenation is embedded in the national fabric of the countries of the Hispanic Caribbean. As a result, the mulatta woman has traditionally represented the embodiment of the Spanish and African races in the narratives of national identity. In the first chapter, I propose to study the novels written by Mayra Santos-Febres and Mayra Montero to analyze the presence of the contemporary black woman and offer a vision of her struggles and desires, as well as to trace the relationship which exists between the woman of color and national identity. Furthermore, I will attempt to determine whether her racial identity reveals an emerging state of liberation or a continuing state of cultural dependency. This first chapter will include the theoretical framework provided by the works of Marco Moreno Fraginals, Antonio Benitez Rojo, and Vera Kutzinsky In the second chapter, I will study the transvestite subject in the works of Mayra Santos Febres in order to see how this presence parodies and disrupts the concepts of gender and national identity. Furthermore, the study will stress how the theatrical performance of the transvestite, accompanied with its elements of disguise, music and acting, can serve as a postcolonial satire which points to a Caribbean that masks itself so as to denounce the voyeuristic and fetishistic behavior of a colonizing First World. In this chapter, I will use the theories of performance and gender elaborated by Judith Butler, Marjorie Garber, and Chilean feminist critic, Nelly Richards In the third chapter, the investigation will focus on the feminine subjects that transgress heterosexual codes in order to show how their identities express erotic discourse as an element of resistance against the processes of objectification and heterosexual oppression. These subjects oppose compulsory heterosexuality and gender constructions in order to liberate their true selves and desires. This analysis will take into account the theories of feminist and gender critics such as Monica Wittig, Adrienne Rich, Luce Irigaray and Nelly Richards The literary narratives cited above offer discourses that oppose hegemony in an effort to counterbalance the distribution of power. These texts, which seek to challenge authoritative power, also aim to give marginal feminine subjects a space from which they can generate alternative interpretative modes and in turn speak out and become an agent of her own history. The dissertation will conclude that feminine subjects that are positioned in the peripheries move about in a series of resisting movements---translocations, transvestisms, masqueradings---which protect the Caribbean feminine subject from being totally exposed and decoded, and these acts of resistance serve as a buffer to help prevent continuing acts of appropriation and colonization on the part of dominant Western powers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / acase@tulane.edu

Because it has no distinct formal characteristics, the Bildungsroman genre is defined only through the reader's recognition of the protagonist's transformation from an inchoate identity to a fixed, mature one. This recognition depends on how the protagonist's development conforms to a model of maturation derived from Enlightenment ideals of the individual as autonomous and rational. By responding to the contested nature of identity in American culture, this re-generation of the Enlightenment paradigm as a natural expression of the self is the foundation for the Bildungsroman's popularity. When applied to ethnic American texts that critique the structures of racism and patriarchy, the genre destabilizes those critiques by reinforcing the Enlightenment paradigm from which those structures are derived The use of autobiographical ethnic Bildungsromane as representative texts often relies on reductive assumptions about the concept of truth, but key texts such as Black Boy, by Richard Wright, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X demonstrate the mediated nature of truth in autobiography, and the reception of their texts reveals the problems associated with the assumption of the transparent truth of the texts. Jamaica Kincaid also undermines the transparent relationship between truth and autobiography, as well as the independent self of the Bildungsroman, by presenting her development as a writer through accounts of her father and brother The role of ethnic Bildungsromane as representative texts inspires anxiety about the concept of authenticity. The texts of second generation immigrant writers Richard Rodriguez, Maxine Hong Kingston and Paule Marshall are recognized by readers as Bildungsromane, but that recognition, through the writers' struggle with cultural authenticity, celebrates a fluid conception of identity while simultaneously authorizing an overly personal interpretation of the protagonists' struggle to define their cultural identity The Bildungsroman implicitly posits a fixed cultural identity in its definition of the self, but cultural identity is fundamentally dynamic, formulated, in part, in a dialogic relationship with historical narratives. The adaptation of two prominent African American novels to films, The Color Purple and Beloved, by emphasizing the Bildungsroman element of personal development, sacrifice the richer historical, cultural identities of the novels / acase@tulane.edu

The Cuban antislavery novel of the 19th century will provide the focus for this study. The cultural metamorphosis undergone by the black slave is revealed in this subdivision of colonial literature. From their colonial role as slaves, blacks went on to become an integral part of the cultural mosaic of the region. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how blacks were incorporated into the society that enslaved them, how they claimed a presence in that society and how they fought to establish their own identity. The concluding remarks will demonstrate that it was the Cuban antislavery novel which granted blacks a voice, a presence. This is the modest contribution offered by this investigation. / A testimonial narrative, the antislavery novel, flourished in Cuba during the colonial period, specifically during the 19th century, and it can very well be considered as a prelude to the black search for a space, for a presence, in society. This investigation begins with an introductory chapter which deals not only with the testimonial narrative to be discussed, but also with the accounts which detail the manner in which the black presence became a reality in the region. The three subsequent chapters analyze the following Cuban novels: Francisco by Anselmo Suarez y Romero, Sab by Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, and Cecilia Valdes by Cirilo Villaverde. The emphasis in each of these works is on the search for black identity: the transculturation and integration of blacks in colonial Cuba. These three novels reflect the social context of the Cuban colonial period; therefore, other antislavery novels which portrait the same subject will not be included since their theme is best represented by the aforementioned. / This investigation will conclude with a chapter reaffirming the ideological conceptions that allowed for the emergence of this type of narrative. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1350. / Major Professor: Roberto G. Fernandez. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995. / The Cuban antislavery novel of the 19th century will provide the focus for this study. The cultural metamorphosis undergone by the black slave is revealed in this subdivision of colonial literature. From their colonial role as slaves, blacks went on to become an integral part of the cultural mosaic of the region. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how blacks were incorporated into the society that enslaved them, how they claimed a presence in that society and how they fought to establish their own identity. The concluding remarks will demonstrate that it was the Cuban antislavery novel which granted blacks a voice, a presence. This is the modest contribution offered by this investigation. / A testimonial narrative, the antislavery novel, flourished in Cuba during the colonial period, specifically during the 19th century, and it can very well be considered as a prelude to the black search for a space, for a presence, in society. This investigation begins with an introductory chapter which deals not only with the testimonial narrative to be discussed, but also with the accounts which detail the manner in which the black presence became a reality in the region. The three subsequent chapters analyze the following Cuban novels: Francisco by Anselmo Suarez y Romero, Sab by Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, and Cecilia Valdes by Cirilo Villaverde. The emphasis in each of these works is on the search for black identity: the transculturation and integration of blacks in colonial Cuba. These three novels reflect the social context of the Cuban colonial period; therefore, other antislavery novels which portrait the same subject will not be included since their theme is best represented by the aforementioned. / This investigation will conclude with a chapter reaffirming the ideological conceptions that allowed for the emergence of this type of narrative.

Black women administrators in higher education, who in 1985 comprised only 3.4% of all higher education administrators, have been described as an endangered species. Because of this lack of representation little research has been focused on these women and their special challenges. With academia's increasing commitment to diversity, more needs to be learned about these women who serve as role models for college students. / Most black women in higher education administration are working in lower administrative levels and are not progressing into the more powerful institutional positions. This study explored one possible reason for this lack of upward mobility--the way black women use social power in the organization. / The 128 participants in this study were selected from the American Association of Women in Community & Junior Colleges Leaders and a national list of women CEOs in community colleges. Using the Rahim Leader Power Inventory to measure the administrators' use of the five French & Raven social power bases (coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent) this study examined the effect of race and organizational level on the use of social power by black women administrators in the community college. / Four hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis 1. There is no difference between the power profiles of black and white women working in the lower-levels of community college administration. Hypothesis 2. There is no difference between the power profiles of black and white women working in the upper-levels of community college administration. Hypothesis 3. There is no difference between the power profiles of black women working in the lower-levels and black women working in the upper-levels of community college administration. Hypothesis 4. There is no difference between the power profiles of white women working in the lower-levels and white women working in the upper-levels of community college administration. / A description of the social power base profiles of black and white women at the upper and lower levels of community college administration was calculated and examined using multiple analysis of variance. Race was found to have no effect on the social power scores of the women in the sample. However organizational level did have a significant effect on the scores. As a group, upper-level administrators scored higher on each of the five power bases. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0696. / Major Professor: Lou Bender. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

In a literature that is so often depicted as that of the "minority" the image of the resistant female figure both in the work of African-American and Guadeloupean female writers, seemed appropriate for a comparative study. / This dissertation relies heavily on Reader-Response theories. The first chapter insists on how because of the narrative techniques we are led to read the female characters as victims. In three of the novels the narrator is also the heroine, which sets an element of intimacy between the protagonist and the (mainly female) reader. Intimacy is derived also from the insistence on the character's childhood. A third element of intimacy is the theme of suffering. / In the second chapter, resistance in the character is studied through her interaction with others and the world. Attention is given to four areas: the use of linguistics signs, the use of tools, the use of laws, and the use of esthetic canons. In the movement from victimization to resistance, the most visible changes are in regard to speech and savoir-faire. Both are related to the concept of creation. / The conclusion insists on the characteristics of woman's resistance and its originality. Compared to the male characters in the different novels we assert how are the heroines resist heroism, alienation and suicide, all choices that black people at any given period were and are still given to receive as the only alternatives. The female characters are not about war, but survival. They are not about solving, but resolving problems. And above all they never posit themselves against the world, as their male counterpart, but seek comfort and strength in the community of women. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1345. / Major Professor: Antoine Spacagna. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

It is the intention of this dissertation to provide a 'theory' of African American religious experience that is guided by postmodern critical thought, with particular emphasis on methodologies attempting to grasp what is referred to as the quotidian, the ordinary, but primarily as "everyday life." It is my contention that this constitutes a promising approach that African American religionists should consider. Indeed, for almost forty years, there has been one dominant interpretative lens for the study of African American religious experience, often referred to as a hermeneutics of liberation. It is my contention that this orientation, with its emphasis on the macroscopic, is markedly inadequate. I maintain that what is needed is a focus on the microscopic. Moreover, I also assert that if there is to be a locus for opposition to oppression, it is to be found on the level of the "everyday" --- that which is often passed over as insignificant or irrelevant.

This dissertation explores the importance of representations of sound in the African American literary tradition. Beginning with Frederick Douglass's descriptions of the slave songs and working through depictions of jazz in the early moments of the Civil Rights movement, I show that the aural dimension of African American culture has mediated black writers' engagement with written public discourse. Looking at such diverse works as slave narratives, essays, music books, serial fiction, autobiography, and the novel, this project demonstrates that the tension between aurality and the printed word motivates much of the political work that African American literary texts accomplish. By excavating the various strategies that black writers use to resolve this tension I argue that sound, especially music, functions in African American literature to allow black writers to engage in intertextual discourses that utilize aurality to speak across temporal and stylistic boundaries that have previously limited our critical inquiries. While critics have afforded substantial attention to African American musical culture and its influence on black writing---most notably Houston A. Baker's work on the "Blues Matrix" and Alexander G. Weheliye's notion of "Sonic Afro-Modernity"---this criticism has focused on specific musical forms as structuring agents that exert a direct influence upon black literature. My dissertation not only expands the site of critical inquiry to include non-musical sound, but also focuses on the ways that black writers foreground aurality as more than a means of accessing black musical traditions, but also to create an inter-textual connection to a black literary tradition as well. My dissertation shows that the African American aural tradition, and the inherent problems that accompany any attempt to represent it in writing, has provided black writers a common site from which they can enter into literary genres and styles that are otherwise racially coded as non-black while still maintaining a strong connection to the African American literary tradition.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: B, page: 3830. Adviser: Nicole E. Allen. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-92) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.