Resistance to representation: exploration of self in selected women autobiographies

Abstract

The notion of self comprises physical, affective, and psychological aspects within it. Each and every occurrence in a person’s life has an impact on self. On the contrary, the self affected in that way facilitates a person to alter, modify or add to the existing thought patterns as well as actions. Thus, a person’s self is profoundly amended by her/his space and experiences in a social system. Society or culture seems to fix a person in a predetermined framework beyond which she/he can’t act for any cause and the fixed mould acts as a stumbling stone to the self. The preset framework is constituted by a strong blend of gender, race and power with which each person is forced to be related in a social system. Self has a major role in fixative positioning of one in a social/cultural system. It is the self which determines whether to conform to predetermined class, race, and gender rules or to perform beyond them. Race and ethnicity act as a crucial component in the formation of self. They have a deep impact on the self by affecting people’s feeling of belonging to a specific culture or social group. In the case of people who are being treated in a discriminatory or unjust way, it casts a detrimental effect on their sense of self. As a result, their actions and thought patterns will be in line with the commonly accepted racial modes. But it requires a special vigor from the minority group to overthrow the detrimental effect of the age-old discrimination and channelize their actions in accordance with one’s own will. Thus, an inviolable self is formed. The resolute Afro-American activists Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, and Maya Angelou never allow the discriminations in name of gender and race to halt the self. Instead, they come out of all the racial and gendered ambits through their might. Society, which always forces people to behave in tune with the preset patterns, considers this subverted performance as dangerous for their existence. But nothing holds these strong women back from their journey of self-exploration. The aim of this study is to expose the revolutionary self and life of these Afro-American woman activists in the historical background of the U.S. implicit racism. And to put into light the Afro-American woman activists who were/are not much discussed because of their interrogative approach and transgressing actions against white supremacy. These Afro-American women activists stand as a symbol of resistance to strive and be triumphant in making their space in society. The life narratives selected for the study are Assata: An Autobiography (1987), Angela Davis: An autobiography (1974), the autobiography series of Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Singin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), Mom and Me and Mom (2013). The thesis comprises six chapters. The first chapter of the thesis focuses on the conceptions of resistance. The variant dimensions of ‘representation’ has been discussed. The second chapter Life Narratives: “Reflecting and Reviewing Lives” centers on the way in which life of the author gets explored through life narratives like autobiography. The third chapter “Devising Self out of Resistance: From Subsistence to Selfhood” explores the development of black women self as they explore different vistas of struggle and subjugation. It deals with the different aspects of self. The development of self in a person has analyzed in the light of theories of psychology- Gender Schema Theory, Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura- Self-efficacy. It focuses on the way the concept of self and self-exploration is getting revealed and realized through the genre of autobiography. Self as a by- product of intersections of race, class and gender is scrutinized in this chapter. The fourth chapter “Redefining Realness: A Re-presentation of Racist Consciousness” studies race as a decisive factor in forming a person’s psyche and thus its effect on the selfhood. Critical Race Theory (CRT) Erik. H. Erikson’s psychological theory of identity and the role of familial or other personal relationships as a strong backbone for subverting commonplace notions and actions on the basis of race is being depicted. The chapter moves through theories of representation. It focuses on representation of gender and racial representation. The Afro-American women activists had to resist all the societal and cultural forces which tried to subjugate them in the name of race and gender, and finally conjured up to ‘represent’ the value of self in struggling against adverse life situations. The fifth chapter entitled “Beyond Performativity: Space and Performance Bridge the Conceptual Divide” details how the transgressed gender roles make these activists’ life at risk and the negative image society and media cast upon them. The conception of binary oppositions in connection with gender roles always put forward a boundary for one’s actions in a social structure which extends its foundation in compartmentalization. Society put forth a normative structure of gender role by means of repeated compliance to social/cultural norms on gender performance and thus ‘naturalizing’ them. In contrast to the commonplace predetermined gender dynamics, these activist women found it functional to subvert the gender boundaries in ‘performing’ their identity. The concluding chapter explains the unique success of these Afro-American activists in their search of self. It voices forth the unstated aspiration of woman and shares in common a note of braveness and perseverance to assert their self and thus establish their valor even in unpropitious situations. It depicts the metamorphosis of a Afro-American woman self to activist self which results in changing status quo as well as gaining individual identity among the other Black women. How the Black women activism has been overlooked by most historians though their activism begins simply from refusal to adjust to the systems of race and patriarchy prevalent in the U.S. then, forms the core of this chapter.