- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- Collecting our she-roes an afrofemcentric perspective on self-actualization, 1996
- Creator:
- Dreher, Kwakiutl L.
- Date of Original:
- 1996-07-01
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- This thesis examines the lives of Aku-nna, Emilia/Marina and Janie, the Africana protagonists in the novels The Bride Price. When Rocks Dance, and Their Eves Were Watching God whose trials exemplify an Africana she-roic quest. The study is based on the premise that women of African descent are conspicuously absent from heroics in literature. The investigation of the literary heroic pattern led to the discovery that its criteria failed to include the she-roics of women, particularly women of African descent. Further investigation of heroic literature shows an emphasis primarily on the external feats of the hero. The study constructs a female specific she-roic pattern whose criteria accentuate the day-to-day personal survival she-roics of the aforementioned protagonists. The criteria involve (1) a crucial event; (2) announcement of intent to act; (3) societys action against the intent; (4) discovery of the right to choose; and (5) establishment of authority, control and parity in their lives. The nucleus of this construction is a focus on the internal quest to self-actualization rather than to uplift and save others. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that the novelists Buchi Emecheta, Elizabeth Nunez-Harrell and Zora Neale Hurston have expanded the heroic vision to include the makings of Africana literary she-roes.
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1996_dreher_kwakiutl_l.pdf
- Rights Holder:
- Clark Atlanta University
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
