'Re/visioning' the self away from home
Subtitle: autobiographical and cross-cultural dimensions in the works of Paule Marshall
By: Bernhard Melchior.
Series: European university studies. Series XIV, Anglo-Saxon language and literature ;; vol. 340 =; Europäische Hochschulschriften. Reihe XIV, Angelsächsische Sprache und Literatur,; Bd. 340; Europäische Hochschulschriften.; Bd. 340.
Publisher: P. Lang; Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Peter; Lang Publishing, Incorporated, Peter
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Frankfurt am Main; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 358
Subjects: Marshall, Paule, 1929-  -- Criticism and interpretation.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Autobiographical fiction, American -- History and criticism.; Culture conflict in literature.; African Americans in literature.; Exiles in literature.; Self in literature.; Home in literature.; Caribbean Area -- In literature.
Description: "'Re/Visioning'" explores, analyzes, and contextualizes the literary voices of West Indian women writers living in the United States emerging in the 1980's. Despite having published since 1959, Barbadian American writer Paule Marshall is in the forefront of the movement. The autobiographical and cross-cultural dimensions of her four novels to date involve the reader in typical imaginative reverberations of cross-cultural experience and existence.

General considerations about a sensible critical approach and the usefulness of autobiography criticism in this context are followed by a comprehensive analysis of Paule Marshall's oeuvre. In exemplary fashion, detailed readings of Praisesong for the Widow (1983) and Daughters (1991) in particular illustrate the author's textual/textural act of re/viewing and en/visioning the indivisible cross-cultural implications of her West Indian American experience.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-358).
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bamberg, 1996.