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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77435 |
| Contributors | Pierre, Alix., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 293 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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