This study provides critical insight into the long neglected contribution of black American women to the autobiographical genre. Although other works are mentioned, this scholarly endeavor is an analysis of the themes and structuring devices embodied in the autobiographies of four black women: Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, and Zora Neale Hurston. / The introductory chapters examines variously formulated definitions and other elements, including style, ascribed to the genre of autobiography. It also considers the concepts of truth and falsity, the female autobiographical tradition, and the black autobiographical tradition. / The selected autobiographies are analyzed in individual chapters. Angelou's four books--I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, and The Heart of a Woman--Brooks's Report from Part One, Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black, and Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road reveal common technical/organizational devices. Most essential to the black woman autobiographer is the question for personal identity. Other themes include the importance of education, the value of the work ethic, an expressed attitude towards religious devotion, and the connection between art and social responsibility. In addition, an examination of the structuring devices shows a unanimous use of the fragmented narrative, whose digressions, anecdotes, and family portraits form distinct thematic units. Also, these life stories evince either a "life-as-journey" pattern of development (both literal and metaphorical) based on repeated movement or a "life-as-stability" pattern with the self staying in one place and forging an identity there. Language, too, in all its manifestations, helps to establish a textual self at the center of the autobiographical act. Overall, these black women's autobiographies, in addition to giving voice to women, reveal what it means to be human in a society that denies humanity, growth, and fulfillment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1456. / Major Professor: Fred L. Standley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76300 |
| Contributors | Hardin, Shirley Hodge., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 317 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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