This paper situates Gloria Naylors 1988 novel, Mama Day, within the tradition of 19th century African American womens autobiography. I argue that the slave-narrative can be understood as black autobiography in that ex-slaves used their life story as a political tool in both critiquing slavery and redefining black identity. Mama Day could be understood as a neo-slave narrative since the novel traces a trajectory from Sapphira Wadea young black female slave living in the 19th century to the youngest descendent of her matrilineal line, Cocoa Day, who is living in the 20th century. The novel is set in Willow Springs, a fictional island where Sapphira Wade was enslaved. I argue that Sapphira Wade is able to redefine black femininity through her use of conjure to reclaim Willow Springs from her master and create a safe space for her matrilineal line of Day women. These women follow in Sapphira Wades tradition of black female self-empowerment and self-definition. I find that Cocoa Day, too, follows in this tradition, which is expressed by Naylors choice to allow Cocoa Day to speak in first-person. This paper explores how Cocoas narration can be interpreted as an autobiography and how both her ancestry and migratory experiences shapes this self-crafting of a life story. Furthermore I look at how Cocoa-through her life story-becomes an agent in the construction of a modern black female subjectivity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-06302012-152033 |
| Date | 23 July 2012 |
| Creators | Mensah, Lucy Kwabah |
| Contributors | Dr. Ifeoma Nwankwo |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-06302012-152033/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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