Black Women's Literature of the Americas: Griots and Goddesses

ISBN-13: 9781032067148 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 228 str.

Tonia Leigh Wind

Opis

Drawing on a range of historical and literary texts, this book examines how Black women under the yoke of slavery negotiated their sense of belonging and spirituality from a liminal position, stuck between a new life in the Americas, and their connections to their African ancestral roots and a wider diasporic community.

Spis treści

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION Origins and New Beginnings Hybrid Cultures and Identities CHAPTER 2 - EMBARKATIONS AND DISEMBARKATIONS: THE VOICES OF THE ORISHAS IN THE AMERICAS Introduction Embarkations: Traditional African Spirituality Disembarkations: New World Syncretism CHAPTER 3 - YEMANJA AND OSHUN: AFRICAN GODDESSES IN DIALOGUE WITH THE AMERICAS Introduction Um defeito de cor: Crossings and Manifestations Daughters of the Stone: Oshun Speaks CHAPTER 4 – MEMORY AND (RE)MEMORY IN WORKS OF BLACK WOMEN WRITERS Introduction Beloved: Haunting Memories and Painful Disremembering Um defeito de cor: A Lifetime of (Re)Memories Reyita: The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century and Bitita’s Diary: The Childhood Memoirs of Carolina Maria de Jesus: Memories of Identity CHAPTER 5 – MAPPING THE DIVINE IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA Introduction Crossings and Dislocations Rootedness and Spirituality Intertwined Root Theories Negotiations of Diaspora: A Literary Selection The Spirits Dance Mambo: A Double Diaspora CHAPTER 6 – GODDESSES: MEDIUMS OF WORLDS Introduction Healing Practices: Women between Cities and Worlds Um Defeito de Cor and Sortes de Villamor: Echoes of Spirits and Spiritual Healing The Altar of My Soul and The Spirits Dance Mambo: Orishas, Patakís, and Identity CHAPTER 7 - GRIOTS: GUARDIANS OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE Introduction Beloved and Daughters of the Stone: Embodied Inscriptions and the Passing On of "Herstories" CHAPTER 8 – NEGOTIATING GENDER AND MATERNITY UNDER THE YOKE OF SLAVERY Introduction Maternity Sought and Maternity Denied: Beloved, Daughters of the Stone, and Um defeito de cor CHAPTER 9 – MANIFESTATIONS OF SEXUALITY AND SPIRITUALITY: A LITERARY PERSPECTIVE Introduction Liminal Sexuality and Gender Ambiguity in The Red of His Shadow CHAPTER 10 - CONCLUSIONS The voices echo on INDEX

O autorze

Tonia Leigh Wind completed her PhD at the University of Georgia, USA and is currently a Teaching Associate of Portuguese at the University of Nottingham in the UK.