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Cracked roots: Identity in Maryse Conde's "Heremakhonon"

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Date Issued:
1991
Summary:
Identity in the African diaspora has been an issue of great interest in recent years. In her first novel Heremakhonon, Maryse Conde explores African diasporan female identity. She brings into question multi-culturalism, race stratification, classism, and sexism as major influences in developing identity for the African diasporan woman. For Conde's protagonist in the novel, Veronica, fragmented consciousness is manifested by movement from Guadeloupe, her birth land, to France, to Africa in search of a place or an individual who might help her "heal" her identity. In addition to establishing the existence of fragmentation of consciousness in her character, Conde creates a unique narrative voice which employs elements of autonomous interior monologue to explore the female Diasporan perspective. Finally, Maryse Conde, through the experiences of her character Veronica, refutes the essentialist view of identity in African peoples of the world.
Title: Cracked roots: Identity in Maryse Conde's "Heremakhonon".
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Name(s): Wood, Jacqueline E.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Shaktini, Namascar, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1991
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 83 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Identity in the African diaspora has been an issue of great interest in recent years. In her first novel Heremakhonon, Maryse Conde explores African diasporan female identity. She brings into question multi-culturalism, race stratification, classism, and sexism as major influences in developing identity for the African diasporan woman. For Conde's protagonist in the novel, Veronica, fragmented consciousness is manifested by movement from Guadeloupe, her birth land, to France, to Africa in search of a place or an individual who might help her "heal" her identity. In addition to establishing the existence of fragmentation of consciousness in her character, Conde creates a unique narrative voice which employs elements of autonomous interior monologue to explore the female Diasporan perspective. Finally, Maryse Conde, through the experiences of her character Veronica, refutes the essentialist view of identity in African peoples of the world.
Identifier: 14716 (digitool), FADT14716 (IID), fau:11507 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.
Subject(s): Condé, Maryse--Hérémakhonon
Women, Black, in literature
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14716
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.