Review article
History and Memory as Marks of Gender: Affirmation of Woman's Self Through Matrilineal Legacy in Gayl Jones's Corregidora
Sandra Novkinić
; College & University in Bihac
Abstract
African American women writers embark upon representations of history that aim to connect past and present, individual and community. In this context, history emerges as the central vehicle of cultural reconstruction, community renewal, and self-discovery. Thus, the focus of this article is on the recreation of the ancestral past and affirmation of woman’s self through matrilineal legacy in Corregidora, a novel by African American writer Gayl Jones. In her representation of the past and memories, Jones recovers the oral tradition, developed and tested in an experience of slavery and through history of oppression and adversity. The aim of this article is to show how disclosing the past enables the last Corregidora woman to go beyond the linear passing of history and draw frontiers between the past and present, personal and collective, that will enable her to gain control of her own life. Singing the blues also enables Ursa to transcend the past, and ultimately achieve freedom. Through her songs she discovers a means of separating history and personality.
Keywords
Corregidora; Gayl Jones; history; memory; matrilineal legacy; self-assertion; woman’s self; blues
Hrčak ID:
244996
URI
Publication date:
17.10.2020.
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