Slow Your Roll (Role), "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere Girl": The Conflicted Space of Liberation in African-American Women's Literary Tradition
Location
Beaman A&B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
19-9-2011 10:00 AM
Description
In her recent publication, 1996, Gloria Naylor presents a seemingly unusual story of physical and mental invasion. However, upon further examination of the novel, what at first seems to be a new story is actually a reinvention of an older and familiar experience. This is a story that is told repeatedly by African-American women writers. Even if physical freedom is achieved, economic, political, as well as social and emotional limitations defined by racist and misogynistic practices continue. While the attempt at liberation has warranted an aggressive defiance of the very limited expectations that govern Black women’s oppression, the social expectations indicate that such actions are not acceptable. In liberating themselves, Black women have been cautioned and directed to “behave” as ladies while denied their femininity by the very act of declaring themselves human. Thus, the nature of gender and racial norms has held African-American women captive in their attempt to liberate themselves. They may escape one oppression only to be presented with the options of other forms of servitude.
This presentation will discuss the ways in which African-American women have been pressured physically, socially, politically, and emotionally throughout history to comply with conventional expectations based on their race and gender. This pressure to comply has come from outside and from within their communities. The pressure to comply with such limitations has at times compelled accommodation and compliance simply for survival and at other times for “success.” The tension between defiance and compliance with limited expectations are captured in African-American women’s literary tradition.
Recommended Citation
Dixon, Rebecca, "Slow Your Roll (Role), "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere Girl": The Conflicted Space of Liberation in African-American Women's Literary Tradition" (2011). Humanities Symposium. 11.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2011/2011/11
Slow Your Roll (Role), "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere Girl": The Conflicted Space of Liberation in African-American Women's Literary Tradition
Beaman A&B
In her recent publication, 1996, Gloria Naylor presents a seemingly unusual story of physical and mental invasion. However, upon further examination of the novel, what at first seems to be a new story is actually a reinvention of an older and familiar experience. This is a story that is told repeatedly by African-American women writers. Even if physical freedom is achieved, economic, political, as well as social and emotional limitations defined by racist and misogynistic practices continue. While the attempt at liberation has warranted an aggressive defiance of the very limited expectations that govern Black women’s oppression, the social expectations indicate that such actions are not acceptable. In liberating themselves, Black women have been cautioned and directed to “behave” as ladies while denied their femininity by the very act of declaring themselves human. Thus, the nature of gender and racial norms has held African-American women captive in their attempt to liberate themselves. They may escape one oppression only to be presented with the options of other forms of servitude.
This presentation will discuss the ways in which African-American women have been pressured physically, socially, politically, and emotionally throughout history to comply with conventional expectations based on their race and gender. This pressure to comply has come from outside and from within their communities. The pressure to comply with such limitations has at times compelled accommodation and compliance simply for survival and at other times for “success.” The tension between defiance and compliance with limited expectations are captured in African-American women’s literary tradition.
Comments
Convo: AL