Black madness: Insanity, resistance and re-vision in African American literature
by King, James Sterling, Ph.D., CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, 2007, 194 pages; 3245091

Abstract:

This text and the scholarly project it represents will offer commentary on and analysis of characters found within African American texts who either go insane or manifest dysfunctional/asocial behavior within a larger communal structure. The project will attempt to label certain outcomes and actions carried out by these troubled characters as representing a form of resistance or tropic reaction to the overarching societal pressures that have contributed to the individual's instability. Within the texts I am considering, madness reflects an inability, social or biological, to cope with the pressures of modern life, and, a consequential capitulation to them. A substantial re-vision of this phenomenon of madness is necessary that will allow latitude in interpretation that may make possible re-readings of characters and circumstances as experienced by them within a specifically African American literary context.
 
AdviserJon-Christian Suggs
SchoolCITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
SourceDAI/A 67-12, p. , Apr 2007
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsBlack studies; American literature
Publication Number3245091
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