The Fiction of Gloria Naylor: Houses and Spaces of Resistance First Edition, Edition Contributor(s): Montgomery, Maxine Lavon (Author) |
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ISBN: 1572337222 ISBN-13: 9781572337220 Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press OUR PRICE: $33.25 Product Type: Hardcover Published: November 2010 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - African American |
Dewey: 813.54 |
LCCN: 2010015360 |
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.2" W x 9.2" (0.80 lbs) 144 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The Fiction of Gloria Naylor is one of the very first critical studies of this acclaimed writer. Including an insightful interview with Naylor In her provocative analysis, Maxine Lavon Montgomery argues that Naylor constantly attempts to reconfigure the home and homespace to be more conducive to black self-actualization, thus providing a stark contrast to a dominant white patriarchy evident in a broader public sphere. Employing a postcolonial and feminist theoretical framework to analyze Naylor's evolving body of work, Montgomery pays particular attention to black slave historiography, tales of conjure, trickster lore, and oral devices involving masking, word play, and code-switching--the vernacular strategies that have catapulted Naylor to the vanguard of contemporary African American letters. Montgomery argues for the existence of home as a place that is not exclusively architectural or geographic in nature. She posits that in Naylor's writings, home exists as an intermediate space embedded in cultural memory and encoded in the vernacular. Home closely resembles a highly symbolic, signifying system bound with vexed issues of racial sovereignty as well as literary authority. Through a reinscription of the subversive, frequently clandestine acts of resistance on the part of the border subject--those outside the dominant Thoroughly researched and sophisticated in its approach, The Fiction of Gloria Naylor will be essential reading for scholars and students of African American, American, and Africana Literary and Cultural studies. |