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Multicultural criticism and the problem of critical uniformity: A reading of Gloria Naylor's "Linden Hills"

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Date Issued:
2002
Summary:
Much of postcolonial and feminist criticisms reflect on how the oppressor-oppressed relationship of the past affects the present. However, possible-worlds theory expands these critical borders and respects the differences existing between textual world and actual world, supplying readers with the interpretive power to recognize that every past and present is complete with "possibilities" not yet explored. The fantastical elements of Gloria Naylor's narrative worlds complement the overall fiction. Through three conflicting narrative frames, she shows characters negotiating their assigned space in the inverted world of Linden Hills, not a mimetic representation exactly but reminiscent of Dante and Poe and compelling on its own. Forcing the reader to reevaluate settled assumptions about the actual world, in Linden Hills, Naylor presents the generational re-spawning, and ultimately the breaking, of patriarchy concentrated in the figure of Luther Nedeed.
Title: Multicultural criticism and the problem of critical uniformity: A reading of Gloria Naylor's "Linden Hills".
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Name(s): Lombard, Cathy Eunice.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Martin, Thomas L., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2002
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 55 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Much of postcolonial and feminist criticisms reflect on how the oppressor-oppressed relationship of the past affects the present. However, possible-worlds theory expands these critical borders and respects the differences existing between textual world and actual world, supplying readers with the interpretive power to recognize that every past and present is complete with "possibilities" not yet explored. The fantastical elements of Gloria Naylor's narrative worlds complement the overall fiction. Through three conflicting narrative frames, she shows characters negotiating their assigned space in the inverted world of Linden Hills, not a mimetic representation exactly but reminiscent of Dante and Poe and compelling on its own. Forcing the reader to reevaluate settled assumptions about the actual world, in Linden Hills, Naylor presents the generational re-spawning, and ultimately the breaking, of patriarchy concentrated in the figure of Luther Nedeed.
Identifier: 9780493547459 (isbn), 12885 (digitool), FADT12885 (IID), fau:9759 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2002.
Subject(s): Naylor, Gloria--Linden Hills
African Americans in literature
Feminist literary criticism
Possibility in literature
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12885
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.