| abstract | This dissertation will compare three categories of African heritage literature: Afro-Caribbean which also includes a work
written by a white Cuban, works written by white American authors about black life and culture, and African-American works. The African Diaspora has had a vast
impact on political, social, and cultural fibers of countries around the world. The diaspora for peoples of African descent began with slave trading. As a result,
Africans and their descendants were dispersed throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. This dispersion has created fragmentation and distancing from African
culture in the communities of diasporic African descendants. Persons of African descent born outside of Africa have been and continue to be victims of a
scattered and fragmented culture. Yet, remnants of Mother Africa are present in African Heritage literature. Thus, the question answered in this project is:
How does African Heritage literature depict the themes of the black diaspora experience and create unity and commonality in a fragmented culture? This academic
study uses selected fiction texts of African heritage. These works of fiction will be used for historical synthesis and reflection. Additionally, theme analysis
is used to connect the common themes of racism, colonialism, as well as slavery and its effects on the African diasporic population. The diaspora theories of
thirdspace, ethnography, hybridity, and the notion of patrie will be used in conjunction with literary analysis to formulate cultural correlations in
Afro-Caribbean, African-American, and American fiction written by white authors about black life and culture. I have analyzed seven fiction works by
African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and white American authors, respectively. The goal of this analysis is to show the similarities in the culture of African
diaspora descendants. These individuals share certain characteristics such as skin tone, body build, and hair texture, but the cultural fabric of each country
is quite different. The works being used for analysis are Critina Garcia's The Agüero Sisters (1998), Dalma Llanos-Figueroa's Daughters of the Stone (2009),
Elizabeth Nunez's Boundaries (2011), Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone (2001), Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), DuBose Heyward's
Porgy (1925), and Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven (1926). All of these works further the understanding of the diasporic struggle of Sub-Saharan
people by giving literary voice to the experience. |
