Publication Date
2020
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Adams-Campbell, Melissa
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of English
Abstract
Due to their experiences of oppression as a result of intersecting identities, women of Color are the most disenfranchised by Eurocentric patriarchal accounts and typically most in need of healing. As I explore in my research, works by women writers of Color—such as Louise Erdrich’s Four Souls, Sandra Cisneros’s Have You Seen Marie?, jia qing wilson-yang’s Small Beauty, and Toni Morrison’s Home and Paradise—gathered in this dissertation intentionally question and revise white settler versions of history that devalue people of Color; however, they also revise familiar stories and cultural traditions in their own communities. Doing so both empowers and enables women of Color in these stories to confront individual, historical, and communal trauma, initiating a typically communal, woman-centered process of healing.
Addressing narratives of trauma and healing by North American women writers of Color published since 1997, my research identifies a “feminist healing narrative,” detailing the ways in which women writers of Color use language to narrate trauma and dismantle the misogynist and racist hierarchical systems that inhibit healing. Women writers from different ethnic backgrounds revise and challenge dominant narrative plots within their cultural and literary traditions as well as within white American literature more generally. I define feminist healing narratives as woman-centered stories that: focus on experiences of trauma and women’s communal healing practices; actively work against patriarchal accounts that erase women, and especially women of Color; and reflect the ways women of Color experience the world, view their cultural traditions, and understand other characteristics of their identity, such as ability, class, and education level. In addition to sharing their characters’ unique experiences of trauma and healing, feminist healing narratives establish women of Color as active agents in their own storytelling and healing, creating spaces for women’s voices to be shared and valued. Sharing their stories enables the protagonists in these novels to reclaim their bodies from patriarchal control.
Recommended Citation
Vreeland, Lindsay Marie, "Telling Stories, Healing Cultures: Feminist Healing Narratives By Contemporary American Women of Color" (2020). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7758.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7758
Extent
159 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
