- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- Commission of Two Narratives of the Psyche: Reading Poqeakh in Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, 2019
- Creator:
- Reuven, Genuyah S.
- Date of Original:
- 2010/2019
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
dissertations - Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- This study focuses on the novels of Quicksand by Nella Larsen and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison to explore the phenomenon of poqakh (???????) through the fictionalized lived experiences of their protagonists, Helga Crane and invisible man. Each novelists representation of poqakh offers a portrait of the protagonists psyches. The narratives reveal an unsettling truth for the protagonists, who are members of a population often targeted, stigmatized, and fashioned or re-fashioned by Americans and various environs in American society, that they must assimilatenot only their bodies, but their psyches too to fit the white mans pattern (Larsen 4). Their realities inform them that non-conformity and/or developing or utilizing their intellect is disadvantageousperceiving is unfavorable. Each protagonist learns that she and he will not only be limited by their imaginations or abilities, but also by persons and constructs within American society keeping them witless and amenable. The environs presented in forms such as schools, jobs, even people who prepare each protagonist to accept all and any disparity (inequality and inequity), they are made to be persistently and surreptitiously instructive. As such, these environs are always educating (or training), always molding the psyches of the protagonists to live within a framethe construct (American society). These ever informing boundaries thoroughly acquaint each protagonist on how to scale down [their] desires and dreams so that they will come within reach of possibility (Thurman 115). Poqakh leads Helga Crane to perceive the boundaries while it prevents the invisible man from returning to unblissful ignorance, thus, for him, providing momentary periods of lucidity. This study utilizes a qualitative research design and method, and relies on phenomenological theory to successfully analyze the novels and explicate on the representations of poqakh. As this study will illustrate, Larsen and Ellison offer as representative via their novels two narratives of the diasporic psyche (mind), wherein their protagonists experiences of poqakh lead to some unmitigated facts and disturbing truths about their reality. KEYWORDS: Ancient Philosophy, Asian History, Classical Literature and Philology, Cultural History, Metaphysics, Nonfiction
Date of award: 5/20/2019
Degree type: dissertation
Degree name: Doctor of Arts in Humanities (DAH)
Granting institution: Clark Atlanta University
Department: Humanities
Advisor: DeLong, Kelly B.
Advisor: Hooper-Simanga, Napolita
Advisor: Foster-Singletary, Tikenya - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2019_reuven_genuyah_s
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
