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 traditional
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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:auctr.edu/oai:digitalcommons.auctr.edu:dissertations-1785 |
| Date | 01 May 2011 |
| Creators | Johnson, Larry D, Jr |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |
| Source Sets | Atlanta University Center |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | ETD Collection for Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |
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