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Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Black Women Writing Black Mother Figures: Reading Black Motherhood In Their Eyes Were Watching God And Meridian, Alexis Durell Powe
Black Women Writing Black Mother Figures: Reading Black Motherhood In Their Eyes Were Watching God And Meridian, Alexis Durell Powe
LSU Master's Theses
This research explores connections between Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker's Meridian, two important novels in the African American canon rarely studied in conjunction. I examine the novels' portrayals of Black mothers, comparing and contrasting Nanny Crawford and Mrs. Hill as central mother figures. I also examine Leafy Crawford, Meridian Hill, and other minor Black mother/women characters. Though Hurston's and Walker's presentations of Black mothers differ, both authors work toward dismantling traditional stereotypes of Black motherhood, particularly the Black superwoman stereotype, and, thereby, ultimately redefining Black womanhood. In defending this claim, I explore Hurston's …
Ethics And Literature: Love And Perception In Henry James, Sarah Hamilton
Ethics And Literature: Love And Perception In Henry James, Sarah Hamilton
LSU Master's Theses
In this paper I argue for the value of literature in ethical instruction. Following Martha Nussbaum, I argue that literature often promotes the kind of context-specific judgment, respect for the cognitive value of the emotions and empathy for others that are foundational to the kind of ethical judgment Nussbaum and I support. Like Nussbaum, I find that Henry James's novels evince these same ethical values and that his novels, especially the novels of the late phase, are therefore useful for ethical instruction. Unlike Nussbaum, however, I do not believe that James portrays erotic love as an emotion that is incompatible …