Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Phillips, Rowan R.Hurley, E. Anthony | Phillips, Rowan R., Hurley, E. Anthony | Walters, Tracey L.Hammond, Eugene R.
Date
2011-12-01
Keywords
African American studies--Music--Women's studies
Department
Department of English
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71280
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
A tradition in fiction that echoes throughout the African American literary canon is the commonplace `minor' characterization of female singers who translate the conditions of their everyday lived realities through a uniquely womanist practice of vocal performance. The vocal form of this aesthetic of singing is also represented as a culture of rendered voice and as a sustained motif for personal and group identity. This dissertation argues for the narrative centrality of "minor" African American female singers and also for value to a reading practice that augments secondary characterization on the basis that the literary phenomenon of female singing reformulates traditional reading practices, which placed a text's principle value on its `major' characters, in order to better understand the significance of African American female singers in modern narratives. | 205 pages
Recommended Citation
Jones, Patrina Carynne, "Characterizing Minor African American Women's Everyday Singing in African American Literature" (2011). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 486.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/486