Women in chains
Subtitle: the legacy of slavery in Black women's fiction
By: Venetria K. Patton.
Series: SUNY series in Afro-American studies
Publisher: State University of New York Press; State Univ of New York Pr
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 194
Subjects: American fiction -- African American authors -- History and criticism.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; American fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; African American women -- Intellectual life.; African American families in literature.; African American women in literature.; Mother and child in literature.; African Americans in literature.; Motherhood in literature.; Slavery in literature.
Description: "Using writers such as Harriet Wilson, Frances E. W. Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Toni Morrison, Sherley Anne Williams, and Gayl Jones, the author highlights recurring themes and the various responses of black women writers to the issues of race and gender. Time and again these writers link slavery with motherhood - their depictions of black womanhood are tied to the effects of slavery and represented through the black mother.

Patton shows that both the image others have of black women as well as black women's own self image is framed and influenced by the history of slavery. This history would have us believe that female slaves were mere breeders and not mothers. However, Patton uses the mother figure as a tool to create an intriguing interdisciplinary literary analysis."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-186) and index.