The following is an imagined letter written by Hilda to Mrs. Fitzhugh. This letter performs the relationship that binds Hilda to Mrs. Fitzhugh, and the way in which Hilda must speak in a way that pleases Mrs. Fitzhugh if Hilda wants the checks to continue rolling in which finance Sassafrass’s education. In Hilda’s letters to…
TOPIC FOCUS (Central Objective) I want to explore the theme of blackness and erotic sexuality, and the power dynamics of sexual performance in Black literature. This idea interests me because I like the psychoanalytic lens and I’ve recently enjoyed reading The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han. I’d like to think about the erotic within…
In the scene with Sassafrass and Mitch in their L.A. apartment, Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, which at times can become fantastic or unreal, grounds itself in historical figures. Sassafrass makes “macrame hangings” of “Malcolm…Fidel, Garvey, Archie Shepp, and Coltrane” and wants to share but is forced to hide the “sequin-and-feather hanging shaped like a…
I want to look at the way the narrator describes Daddy’s absent voice compared to how the narrator describes Mama’s present body. What happens is that the narrator attributes physical or sensual characteristics to Daddy (even when he isn’t present) and gives descriptions about the unwanted presence of Mama. This difference parallels Tasha’s confusion or…
Drawing on Professor Curseen’s theory from last class — that blackness gets defined differently in The Color Purple — I wanted to investigate how blackness represents itself between Sofia and Celie. The dialog between Sofia and Celie, as well as their interactions with Miss Millie’s family, identify blackness as something other than the conflict of…
In Chapter 5 of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois refers to the Greek myth of Hippomenes as a means to warn new educations systems of the south about the temptation to place material prosperity above cultural prosperity. This warning is relevant to Atlanta Season 1 in which many characters pursue material wealth. How…