“bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored”:The Metaphysical Dilemma in Ntozake Shange, Sherley Anne Williams, and Toni Morrison | “beinalive & beinawoman & bein colored”: odilemametafísico em Ntozake Shange, Sherley Anne Williams e Toni Morrison

Authors

Flávia Santos de Araújo, Smith CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2017

Publication Title

Revista Ártemis

Abstract

This essay is an analysis of three literary works by black women writers from the U.S.: Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Sherley Ann Williams’ novel Dessa Rose, and Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. In my analysis, I use Shange’s trope of the “methaphysical dilemma” to consider the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality in these writers’ textual representations of black women’s bodies. Writing against a historical legacy of colonialism and domination that defined black bodies as “primitive” or “unbridled” (bell hooks 1991), I argue that these works illustrate some of the artistic/ literary strategies contemporary black women writers use to re-claim the power of voice/voicing as they depict black women’s subjectivities as unfinished, complex, but self-fashioned creations.

Este ensaio é uma análise de três obras literárias produzidas por escritoras negras dos Estados Unidos: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, de Ntozake Shange; Dessa Rose, romance de Sherley Ann Williams; e Beloved, romance de Toni Morrison. Em minha análise, uso a alegoria do “dilema metafísico”, criada por Sahnge, nas minhas considerações acerca das intersecções entre as categorias de raça, gênero e sexualidade em representações textuais do corpo da mulher negra nas obras dessas escritoras. Procuro demonstrar que, ao escreverem na contra-corrente da herança colonial que define os corpos negros como “primitivos” ou “selvagens” (bell hooks 1991), estas obras literárias ilustram algumas das estratégias artístico-literárias usadas por escritoras negras contemporâneas para reclamar o poder da fala/voz em representações das subjetividades de mulheres negras como criações inacabadas, complexas, mas auto-geradas.

Keywords

Black women writers, Black women’s bodies, Literary representations, Escritoras negras, Corpos de mulheres negras, Representações literárias

Volume

14

Issue

1

First Page

12

Last Page

17

ISSN

1807 - 8214

Rights

© the author

Comments

Archived as published.

Recommended Citation

Santos de Araújo, Flávia, "“bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored”:The Metaphysical Dilemma in Ntozake Shange, Sherley Anne Williams, and Toni Morrison | “beinalive & beinawoman & bein colored”: odilemametafísico em Ntozake Shange, Sherley Anne Williams e Toni Morrison" (2017). Africana Studies: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/afr_facpubs/9