African American women in literature

Literary scholars have been examining and recreating the experiences of
“bonded” female characters within Toni Morrison’s novels for decades. However, the
distinct experiences of these enslaved women, that are also mothers have not been
astutely examined by scholars and deserves more attention. My thesis fleshes out the
characterization of several of Morrison’s bonded-mothers and identifies them as a part of
a developing controlling image and theory, called the bondmother. Situating these
characters within this category allows readers to trace their journeys towards freedom and
personal redemption. This character tracing will occur by examining the following Toni
Morrison novels: Beloved (1987) and Paradise (1997). In order to fully examine the
experiences of these characters it will be necessary for me to expand the definition of
bondage and mother.

In Jazz and Beloved Morrison explores the difficulties of the acquisition of selfhood for African Americans. In the novels, Morrison examines these difficulties focussing especially on the maternal role. Offering no facile solutions, these narratives do share characteristics common to individuals attaining individuation. A person's relationship with the mother and ability to confront his history, no matter how painful, are integral elements to any presence of self-worth. Although far from didactic, one truth examined in the novels is the need for Africans in America to create their own definitions of their history. African American figures, maternal and otherwise have been traditionally defined by the oppressive society, using stereotypes inherited from slavery. Jazz and Beloved are reclamations of these definitions. Reclamations Morrison has asserted are necessary for the posterity of her people. How do African Americans attain selfhood when they do not even own themselves? The solutions to this problem are multifaceted. Morrison's novels urge the African American to confront the history and redefine myths that have often undermined the process.

Characterization of Black women as erotic beings in Spanish-Caribbean narrative has shifted significantly from 1880 to 1990. Their representation as totally submissive and erotic beings has evolved into that of socially conscious and self accepting Black women. In Villaverde's Cecilia Valdes (1882), Cecilia and Maria de la Regla are depicted as objects of male sexual desires. Diaz's Pascua in Cumboto (1948) and Asturias' Mulata de tal (1963), although eroticized, insinuate an underlying androgynous nature which makes them more assertive in their use of sexuality. However, it is contemporary women writers who dismantle the erotic stereotype: Ferre's "Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres" (1974) portrays a Black prostitute who, advances socially and economically. Cabrera's Nana in "La tesorera del diablo" (1971) is the bearer of ancestral knowledge and moral values, and Cartagena Portalatin's Aurora, in "La llamaban Aurora," (1978) speaks forcefully on social issues and fully accepts herself as a Black woman.