From Aporia to Identity Formation: The Perilous Passage of African American Women's Dramatic Discourse

Authors

Thallam Sarada

Abstract

This paper analyses the dramatic discourse of two African American women dramatists, Sonia Sanchez and Ntozake Shange. It uses as its critical framework Erik Erikson’s theory of identity formation to examine their discourse, which challenges patriarchy and contemporary Anglo American feminist writings. It analyses the multiple ways in which Sanchez and Shange invent standard American English to present a unique African American women’s perspective. Their discourse, this paper argues, thus challenges the prevailing notions of power, truth, knowledge and ideology to give voice to the previously silent black women.

Author Biography

Dr. T. Sarada teaches in the department of English, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India. Her areas of research include African American women's theatre, postcolonial studies, gender studies and translation studies. She has authored a book entitled African American Women Playwrights: A Study in Race, Gender and Class (New Delhi: Prestige, 2010) while her second book on Indian feminist hermeneutics is currently under consideration. She has published articles in journals of national and international repute. She was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recommended Citation

Sarada, Thallam (2015) "From Aporia to Identity Formation: The Perilous Passage of African American Women's Dramatic Discourse," Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 16: Iss. 2, Article 19.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol16/iss2/19