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"Patton, Venetria K., 1968-"
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The Grasp That Reaches beyond the Grave
The Grasp That Reaches beyond the Grave investigates the
treatment of the ancestor figure in Toni Cade Bambara's The
Salt Eaters , Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the
Widow , Phyllis Alesia Perry's Stigmata and A
Sunday in June , Toni Morrison's Beloved , Tananarive
Due's The Between , and Julie Dash's film, Daughters of
the Dust in order to understand how they draw on African
cosmology and the interrelationship of ancestors, elders, and
children to promote healing within the African American community.
Venetria K. Patton suggests that the experience of slavery with its
concomitant view of black women as \"natally dead\" has impacted
African American women writers' emphasis on elders and ancestors as
they seek means to counteract notions of black women as somehow
disconnected from the progeny of their wombs. This misperception is
in part addressed via a rich kinship system, which includes the
living and the dead. Patton notes an uncanny connection between
depictions of elder, ancestor, and child figures in these texts and
Kongo cosmology. These references suggest that these works are
examples of Africanisms or African retentions, which continue to
impact African American culture.
eBook
Women in chains : the legacy of slavery in Black women's fiction
Traces the connection between slavery and the way in which black women fiction writers depict female characters and address gender issues, particularly maternity. Using writers such as Harriet Wilson, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Toni Morrison, Sherley Anne Williams, and Gayl Jones, the author highlights recurring themes and the various responses of black women writers to the issues of race and gender. Time and again these writers link slavery with motherhood—their depictions of black womanhood are tied to the effects of slavery and represented through the black mother. Patton shows that both the image others have of black women as well as black women’s own self image is framed and influenced by the history of slavery. This history would have us believe that female slaves were mere breeders and not mothers. However, Patton uses the mother figure as a tool to create an intriguing interdisciplinary literary analysis.
eBook