A Comparative Analysis of the New African-American Narratives and Critical Voices of Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Al Sharpton, and Patrisse Cullors.
| Název práce v češtině: | Komparativní analýza nových Afroamerických narativů a kritických hlasů Toni Morrison, Angely Davis, Ala Sharptona a Patrisse Cullors. |
|---|---|
| Název v anglickém jazyce: | A Comparative Analysis of the New African-American Narratives and Critical Voices of Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Al Sharpton, and Patrisse Cullors. |
| Klíčová slova: | aktivismus|Al Sharpton|Angela Davis|Black Lives Matter|Hnutí za občanská práva|James Baldwin|literatura jako aktivismus|Malcolm X|Martin Luther King Jr.|Nové hnutí za občanská práva|občanská práva|Patrisse Cullors|rasismus|současný aktivismus|Toni Morrison |
| Klíčová slova anglicky: | activism|Al Sharpton|Angela Davis|Black Lives Matter|civil rights|Civil Rights Movement|James Baldwin|literature as activism|Malcolm X|Martin Luther King Jr.|New Civil Rights Movement|Patrisse Cullors|present-day activism|racism|Toni Morrison |
| Akademický rok vypsání: | 2021/2022 |
| Typ práce: | bakalářská práce |
| Jazyk práce: | angličtina |
| Ústav: | Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK) |
| Vedoucí / školitel: | doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil. |
| Řešitel: | skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd. |
| Datum přihlášení: | 07.03.2022 |
| Datum zadání: | 07.03.2022 |
| Schválení administrátorem: | zatím neschvalováno |
| Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: | 08.03.2022 |
| Datum a čas obhajoby: | 06.09.2022 00:00 |
| Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: | 02.08.2022 |
| Datum proběhlé obhajoby: | 06.09.2022 |
| Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: | odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná |
| Oponenti: | Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D. |
| Zásady pro vypracování |
| The struggle of the African Americans regarding their civil rights is a sad part of long American history. It is believed that the peak of the fight of this struggle, the American Civil Rights Movement, ended in 1968 with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Although the period of 1960’s African American community lost its most dominant advocates for civil rights, which among others include Malcolm X, W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and already mentioned M. L. King; the period resulted in some significant accomplishments for the Afro-American society. The significant achievements were, for example, making segregation illegal in public schools, the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and most importantly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the fact that it ended in 1968 gives a limiting perspective on the historical event itself because the end of the movement did not equal the end of the problems for the black community. In this sense, Levitsky and Ziblatt, in the introduction of their book How Democracies Die, claim that “history doesn’t repeat itself. But it rhymes. The promise of history […] is that we can find the rhymes before it’s too late.”[1] Being the minority in the predominantly white state, where systemic racism is deeply rooted, the African American community has been facing many problems. As for recent years, the most dominant issues of this “rhyming history” include ongoing racially oriented violence, police brutality, rising number of imprisoned people of color, issues with the employment of African Americans, their deficiency in higher governmental positions and many more. In her essay “Learning from the 60s,” Audre Lorde argues, “revolution is not a one-time event.”[2] The year 1968 may mark the inevitable death of one era, but what it also does is that it indicates the birth of another one. The fight for rights was not a one-time event; after 1968, it only moved to different spheres in which it continues to be present to this day. To prove the point, the main focus of this thesis will be on four personas who made a significant contribution to the “new” civil rights movement in the era starting from the 1970s and who can be considered as ones of many rightful representatives of it. Firstly, Toni Morrison, an inevitable part of “the new” movement, is recognized mainly for her fiction. In the late 20th century, the general readership has undergone a rapid change. She was able to take this opportunity immediately. As a result, she used fiction as a part of her activism. In her books, she focuses on portraying the harsh realities of slavery, racism, and its impacts on black communities. What is more, she offers an extensive picture of African American female characters whose struggles are more prevalent. This connects to the fact that women had it much worse in the slavery and post-slavery era than men. By all of this, Morrison is able to offer a comprehensive understanding of the nature of these problems and the psyche of African Americans even to the readership of other races. She also published numerous non-fiction works in which she highlights precisely the same issues. Secondly, in the thesis, I will focus on Angela Davis. As a writer, political activist, and academic, she contributes her life to fighting for the rights of the black community. Being Marxist, feminist and openly homosexual, she offers a different perspective not only on the problems of race and gender but mainly on the problem of class division in the U.S., which she discusses in her books. In her essays, she offers a Marxist analysis of class and race in relation to capitalism in the U.S. As Morrison in her books, Davis also focuses on female perspective and feminist struggles that African American women had to face during slavery and even after. In the thesis, the first significant comparison will consider Morrison and Davis. Even though they both focus on prevalently women’s perspectives, their approaches differ greatly. While Davis develops her arguments through non-fiction writing, Morrison is able to use both fiction and non-fiction to present the issues. Another major difference that the thesis will consider is the overall approach and ideologies used because, as already stated, Davis offers the problems of the society through a Marxist perspective. By this, the thesis will show how their activism spreads through all types of writing, and it will also highlight the differences of the said approaches. Thirdly, I will consider Patrisse Cullors as one of the most recent representatives of the “new” movement. Although she is mostly recognized as one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, she is an essential voice of prison abolition and LGBTQ rights. She is an excellent example of a major change considering the nature of movements in general. While during the Civil rights era, the movements took place on the streets, today, they are able to capture an even wider audience and supporters because of the social networks. By creating the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, she, along with Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, began a movement like no other. They were able to reach supporters worldwide, which also contributes to the fact that this is not a movement with one person at its head as a representative and a speaker. This movement is a collective movement, which highlights the power of cooperation and contribution. Being also an activist, writer and artist, she is considered an important voice in prison abolition, similar to Angela Davis. Lastly, the thesis will focus on Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and politician. He is also a founder of the National Action Network. He was chosen by Jesse Jackson himself in 1969 to work on Operation Breadbasket and has taken part in many protests ever since. He is also famous for leading several marches, demonstrations and writing numerous works, where he addresses activism and his fight against racism. Because of that, on most occasions and also in his books, he offers his experiences and uses them in the continuation of the fight against racism. As a voice of the past, he contributes significantly to changing the future by participating in most protests while also being an important figure in politics. The second major comparison will consider Cullors and Sharpton. Their approaches differ mainly in the fact that Cullors is a new voice inspired by movements and revolutionaries worldwide, which resulted in her applying the critical theory to her activism. At the same time, Sharpton is an activist of the “old school” who experienced the civil rights era and took his experiences from there. Nevertheless, they both are influential voices of the new activism and will be compared accordingly in the thesis. The thesis will be divided into two main parts. The first part of the thesis will focus on the historical background, mainly on the civil rights era and the followed oppression which the movement fought against. The second part will discuss the already mentioned personas, their contribution and activism in the “new” movement. The method will be that of comparison, where I will examine the differences and similarities of both eras, the said personas, and their contribution to the fight for the rights of African Americans. In the thesis, I will also touch upon the major groups and organizations that have existed throughout this period as a result of the problems which African American community faced, along with newly established movements within this major movement. Therefore, the focus of this thesis will be on the “new” movement, which will be examined by a comparison of the chosen representatives and their contributions. The aim is to prove that even after so many years, the systemic racism that African Americans face is still a big issue in a country where “all men are created equal,”[3] and that because of that, the civil rights movement did not really end, it just expanded to adapt to the new era. [1]Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die (London: Penguin Books, 2019) 10. [2]Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s,” BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s/ [3]Thomas Jefferson, et al, July 4, Copy of Declaration of Independence. -07-04, 1776. https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib000159/. |
| Seznam odborné literatury |
| Preliminary bibliography Arnold, Eric K. “The BLM Effect: Hashtags, History and Race.” Race, Poverty & the Environment 21, no. 2 (2017): 8–15.http://www.jstor.org/stable/44687751. Bakerman, Jane S. “Failures of Love: Female Initiation in the Novels of Toni Morrison.” American Literature 52, no. 4 (1981): 541–63.https://doi.org/10.2307/2925450. Baldwin, James Arthur. Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Baldwin, James Arthur. Notes of a Native Son. New York: Bantam Books, 1964. Cullors, Patrisse. An Abolitionist’s Handbook. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2022. Cullors, Patrisse. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018. Davis, Angela. “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves.” The Massachusetts Review 13, no. 1/2 (1972): 81–100.http://www.jstor.org/stable/25088201. Davis, Angela. Freedom is a Constant Struggle. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016. Davis, Angela. Women, Race and Class. New York: Random House, 1981. Garza, Alicia. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. New York: One World, 2020. Ghasemi, Parvin. “Negotiating Black Motherhood In Toni Morrison’s Novels.” CLA Journal 53, no. 3 (2010): 235–53.http://www.jstor.org/stable/44325640. Hercules, Frank. American Society and Black Revolution. New York: Harcourt, 1972. Johnson, Latoya. “From the Anti-Slavery Movement to Now: (RE) Examining the Relationship Between Critical Race Theory and Black Feminist Thought.” Race, Gender & Class 22, no. 3–4 (2015): 227–43.https://www.jstor.org/stable/26505358. Krumholz, Linda. “The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” African American Review 26, no. 3 (1992): 395–408.https://doi.org/10.2307/3041912. Lebron, Christopher J. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Levitsky, Steven and Ziblatt Daniel. How Democracies Die. London: Penguin Books, 2019. Mahaffey, Paul D. “The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and Class in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.” Race, Gender & Class 11, no. 4 (2004): 155–65.http://www.jstor.org/stable/43496824. Morrison, Toni. “The Site of Memory.” In Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir. Edited by William Zinsser. 83-102. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Sharpton, Al.Righteous Troublemakers: Untold Stories of the Social Justice Movement in America. New York: Hanover Square Press, 2022. Schiele, Jerome H. “Cultural Oppression and the High-Risk Status of African Americans.” Journal of Black Studies 35, no. 6 (2005): 802–26.http://www.jstor.org/stable/40034882. Walker, Alice. Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. |