Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

2550

Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Concentration

Literary and Cultural Studies

Committee Chair

Theron Britt

Committee Member

Tucket Terrence

Committee Member

Schultz Kathy Lou

Committee Member

Cohoon B. Lorinda

Abstract

This project argues that the shared history of slavery, imperialism, and the plantation manifests in 20th Century literature from both the Caribbean and the Southern United States as a haunting and ghostly presence. I utilize both canonical and less well-known authors, with a particular focus on female authors. Authors from both regions write stories of people and places haunted by history as a way to confront the ghosts of slavery and the plantation to allow them a future free of ghosts. Overall I bring together texts that have not been previously read together to show connections between literature of the Global South and the similarities and differences in the ways that they deal with the specirfic shared history. I show that these authors tell the stories as a way to bring about change and create progress, so the characters are no longer stuck in the past with their ghosts.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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