Praisesong for the Widow

Nazareth, Peter; Marshall, Paule

doi:10.2307/40139221

Cited by 40 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Toutefois, elle ne remet pas en question leur humanisme. Ce qui est substantiel pour Madame, c'est l'identité africaine authentique et qu'elle défend avec abnégation -cette identité incarnée par ceux que Avey Johnson dans Praisesong for the Widow (1983) nomme : "Pure-Africans" (Marshall, 1983). Il s'agit des Africains qui ont connu la colonisation et l'esclavage, mais qui n'ont pas été déportés.…”

Section: Stratégies De Socialisationunclassified

A Comparative Approach to Identities in Toni Morrison’s and Léonora Miano’s Novels

Tia,

Kossonou

2024

IJLLT

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Women writers from the African Diaspora are committed to the question of identity. They construct extraordinary imaginary worlds, sometimes closely linked to their host societies or those of their ancestors. This in-between-cultures characteristic explains the plurality of identities that unfold. The desire to assert their rights and acquire financial mobility forces the fictional subjects evolving in these spaces to embark on a frantic quest for material goods. But to preserve their cultural heritage, influenced by that of elsewhere, they undertake a process of identity construction. Through these narrative strategies, a transgressive practice emerges whose aesthetic aim is to advocate justice. The novels surveyed depict several female figures whose convergent and divergent aspects merit in-depth critical analysis. To this end, the comparative approach will elucidate two major axes, namely "emerging identity forms" and "socialization strategies".

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Section: Stratégies De Socialisationunclassified

A Comparative Approach to Identities in Toni Morrison’s and Léonora Miano’s Novels

Tia,

Kossonou

2024

IJLLT

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“…Nobody remembers how many of 'em it was, but they was a good few 'cording to my gran' who a little girl no bigger than you it happened." (Marshall, 1983) Plainly, the above utterances relate the transatlantic trade during which several Africans lose their African roots forever. This fact is indisputable and proven by history books, such as Alice Bellagamba's African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade (2013).…”

Section: Intergeneric Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But chains stop those Ibos none." (Marshall, 1983) Those textual clues reveal the difficult conditions in which the Africans, captives of the colonists, are deported to the American coasts. Beyond the dehumanizing aspect ix « Tout discours est traversé par l'interdiscursivité, il a pour propriété constitutive d'être en relation multiforme avec d 'autres discours, d'entrer dans l'interdiscours » (Maingueneau, 2002).…”

Section: Intergeneric Devicesunclassified

“…She was able then to separate the sky from the land and to make out the vague shapes of the houses and trees she had seen from the dining room widow earlier." (Marshall, 1983) At the beginning of Praisesong, Marshall's Praisesong, her female character (Avey Johnson) named is a profane, but as depicted in the above quotation, her ritualistic passage is achieved. In other words, she is culturally born again; she can see things differently, distinguish social facts and remember her past.…”

Section: Intergeneric Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrative Devices in Paule Marshall’s Fiction

Tia

2023

EJLS

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Like various other African-American female writers’ fictional works, Paule Marshall’s creative art is anchored in her triple roots (American, African and Barbadian). She thematizes countless sociocultural phenomena narrowly related to her ancestral background. Substantively, her novel titled Praisesong for the Widow embodies some analeptic narrative devices, which revitalize her community’s painful cultural experiences. With a pronounced passion for literature, she mingles, on the one hand, historical facts with fictional ones, black dialect with English, and on the other hand, fictionalizes tales, myths, legends, proverbs, and songs. Her literary imagination teems with some noteworthy extratextual values connected with the African, Caribbean and American societies. Those geographical spaces are mainly inhabited by the African descents. Deported during the colonial period, the latter’s ancestors take with them some of their African values, such as language, religion, and many other substantial traditional/cultural practices. The change of environment favors the implantation of that legacy in America and elsewhere. However, over centuries, those inherited resources undergo the impact of the values pertaining to the host spaces, thus provoking a cultural bereavement/alteration or shock whose immediate repercussion is known as acculturation. The longer this sway persists, the more Blacks suffer from diverse crises. With no instant palliative measures, which can enable them to fight against the exotic cultural domination, each of Marshall’s fictional beings deems it necessary to return to their ancestors’ benchmarks for a whole restoration of their “lost self”. In terms of aesthetic scope, the novel under consideration breaks with a number of artistic traditions. The subversion of some of the canonical norms and interweaving of linguistic devices, colonial facts, mythical, legendary, proverbial, ancestral figures, epitomize that rupture and desire for innovation. An in-depth study of those textual clues will therefore contribute to bringing out the significance of the author’s literary vision. To achieve those objectives, the criticism of postmodernism will serve as the methodological framework. Its principles will help to scrutinize both intergeneric devices, and hybrid/pacifist practices. Article visualizations:<img src="/-counters-/soc/0073/a.php" alt="Hit counter" />

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“…Dillard's (2012) praisesong poem, "Part II: A memory in time: Praisesong for the Queen Mother," is one such example of describing through poetry the experience of accessing deep places and cultural memories. The poem, in which she honored Paule Marshall's (1983) Praisesong for the Widow and described her experience being enstooled as Nkosua Ohemaa Nana Mansa II, is a praisesong-the traditional poetry of Africa used to celebrate movement, transition, adversarial triumph, bravery and courage (Dillard, 2012;Muleka, 2014). Praisesong poems also are indicators of deep cultural connections often embedded in memory.…”

Section: (Re)membering or Accessing Racial/cultural Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

More Than Craft and Criteria: The Necessity of Ars Spirituality in (Black Women’s) Poetic Inquiry and Research Poetry

Cutts

2019

Qualitative Inquiry

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The author introduces ars spirituality as a reflexive practice in poetic inquiry. She examines Faulkner’s ars poetica and ars criteria and contends their focus on the craft, aesthetics, and evaluation of research poetry do not account for the ways in which spirituality influences Black women’s research poetry and poetic inquiry. The author argues Black women’s poetry—whether crafted from/for personal experiences, historical research, or transcripts—is born of the spirit and conceptualizes ars spirituality using the works of Audre Lorde and Cynthia Dillard. Three guiding principles of ars spirituality are discussed and an ars spirituality example is provided.

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Praisesong for the Widow

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

A Comparative Approach to Identities in Toni Morrison’s and Léonora Miano’s Novels

A Comparative Approach to Identities in Toni Morrison’s and Léonora Miano’s Novels

Narrative Devices in Paule Marshall’s Fiction

More Than Craft and Criteria: The Necessity of Ars Spirituality in (Black Women’s) Poetic Inquiry and Research Poetry

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