African American narratives are peopled with subjectivities struggling to retrieve and reconstruct themselves as persons--and thus citizens--through and against American legal narratives, where personhood and citizens...African American narratives are peopled with subjectivities struggling to retrieve and reconstruct themselves as persons--and thus citizens--through and against American legal narratives, where personhood and citizenship are concerned. Thus, there was the problematic for blacks of how to apply citizenship to their corporeal existence when they were labeled as property. The historical legal narrative of America was constructed on the power of the dominant white elite to prevent the emergence of a narrative of African American life other than that which they authorize, legislate, and narrate. To this end, it has been argued, that narratives in African American literature treat the question of the legal status of African Americans or have it as a fundamental trope of struggle in the narrative. This idea suggests that the law＇s ability as a shaper and determinant of African American social identity, presets the narrative base for African American narrative. This paper examines the relationship between ＂＇laws of separations＂, and African American narrative through a rereading of works of two contemporary novelists, Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor. Their works, the author argue, are counter-positioned narratives that create contentious dialogue and elaborate the way in which segregationist codes and Jim Crow laws are grounded in the very nature of citizenship for African Americans.展开更多
In the sense of destitution, human wretchedness, and powerlessness, poverty is a permanent feature of medieval society, inescapable for many men and women. Some virtuous, self-denying people voluntarily chose a life o...In the sense of destitution, human wretchedness, and powerlessness, poverty is a permanent feature of medieval society, inescapable for many men and women. Some virtuous, self-denying people voluntarily chose a life of poverty, usually with a sense of advancing in Christian spirituality. Often associated in moral writing with covetousness, poverty figures among the vices to avoid. In literary works, some instances of poverty and its victims have acquired exemplary value, as is the case of Yvain＇s encounter with three hundred women silk workers in Chr6tien de Troyes＇s 12th-century romance Le Chevalier au lion and its socio-economic implications. Two particular literary contexts are studied here： firstly, where poverty is a temporary condition, susceptible to change, that is improvement, by virtue of courtly-chivalrous action; and secondly, where poverty provides an effective means of disguise, despite possible dangers. While serving the narrative purpose, an ever-present aspect of reality was thus impressed on the audience展开更多
文摘African American narratives are peopled with subjectivities struggling to retrieve and reconstruct themselves as persons--and thus citizens--through and against American legal narratives, where personhood and citizenship are concerned. Thus, there was the problematic for blacks of how to apply citizenship to their corporeal existence when they were labeled as property. The historical legal narrative of America was constructed on the power of the dominant white elite to prevent the emergence of a narrative of African American life other than that which they authorize, legislate, and narrate. To this end, it has been argued, that narratives in African American literature treat the question of the legal status of African Americans or have it as a fundamental trope of struggle in the narrative. This idea suggests that the law＇s ability as a shaper and determinant of African American social identity, presets the narrative base for African American narrative. This paper examines the relationship between ＂＇laws of separations＂, and African American narrative through a rereading of works of two contemporary novelists, Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor. Their works, the author argue, are counter-positioned narratives that create contentious dialogue and elaborate the way in which segregationist codes and Jim Crow laws are grounded in the very nature of citizenship for African Americans.
文摘In the sense of destitution, human wretchedness, and powerlessness, poverty is a permanent feature of medieval society, inescapable for many men and women. Some virtuous, self-denying people voluntarily chose a life of poverty, usually with a sense of advancing in Christian spirituality. Often associated in moral writing with covetousness, poverty figures among the vices to avoid. In literary works, some instances of poverty and its victims have acquired exemplary value, as is the case of Yvain＇s encounter with three hundred women silk workers in Chr6tien de Troyes＇s 12th-century romance Le Chevalier au lion and its socio-economic implications. Two particular literary contexts are studied here： firstly, where poverty is a temporary condition, susceptible to change, that is improvement, by virtue of courtly-chivalrous action; and secondly, where poverty provides an effective means of disguise, despite possible dangers. While serving the narrative purpose, an ever-present aspect of reality was thus impressed on the audience
