There's a Way to Alter the Pain : Biblical Revision and African Tradition in the Fictional Cosmology of Gloria Naylor's Mama Day and Bailey's Cafe

275 Pages·2012·4.157 MB·English

by  Buehler, Dorothea

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Assuming the role of the African American griotte of her generation, Gloria r Modernen Kulturen Relationen Modernen
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Naylor seeks to recover and remember the eroded history of female archetypes yl Relationen Modernen Kulturen Rela-
in order to overcome the pain that a patriarchal, misogynist society has caused a tionen Modernen Kulturen Relationen Dorothea Buehler
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for Black women. Through revisiting and revising Biblical master narratives Modernen Kulturen Relationen Modernen

and Judeo-Christian imagery, Naylor sets out to tell the whole story of a ia Kulturen Relationen Modernen Kulturen
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truncated history. In great detail, this book throws light on Naylor’s liter- o
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Theology and a matrifocal Africana Womanism. In an analysis that fuses the of Kulturen Relationen Modernen Kulturen
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Dorothea Buehler is a graduate from the University of Würzburg. She is current- e Modernen Kulturen Relationen Modernen
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ly working at the English Department at Centralia College in Washington State. B
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“There’s a Way to Alter the Pain”
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Herausgegeben von
Gerhard Droesser
und Michael Hartlieb
Band 14
PETER LANG
Frankfurt am Main · Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Wien
Dorothea Buehler
“t ’ W
here s a ay
a P ”
to lter the ain
Biblical Revision and African
Tradition in the Fictional
Cosmology of Gloria Naylor’s
Mama Day and Bailey’s Cafe
PETER LANG
InternationalerVerlag der Wissenschaften
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is
available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Zugl.: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2011
D 20
ISSN 1619-358X
ISBN 978-3-631-63382-3
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2012
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
www.peterlang.de
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.
So let us put aside the deeds of darkness
and put on the armor of light.
(Romans, 13:12)

Acknowledgments
I would like to give thanks to Professor Dr. Jochen Achilles for his continuous
support in my academic development. He has shown great patience and under-
standing in this "transcontinental" cooperation. His openness to new ideas truly
provided fertile grounds for this work.
I owe special thanks also to Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann and Prof. Dr. Dr. Gerhard
Droesser for their interest and support. Prof. Droesser’s dedication and interest
in my research beyond this project give me great strength and hope.
Above all, however, I give inestimable thanks to my family, my parents, my
brothers and sisters, and my kind, big-hearted husband Matthew for being with
me throughout the ups and downs of this journey. You are always with me. My
parents are easily the greatest inspiration to complete this work. Their insatiable
curiosity, patience, and persistence are simply awe-inspiring. Thank you for
your eternal gifts of love.
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List of Contents
Acknowledgements 7
1. Introduction 11
2. New Wine in Old Skins: Revision of Christian Mythology 24
2.1. Biblical Appropriation in the African American Context 25
2.2. Overview of Naylor’s Revisionism 27
3. The Pillars of Naylor’s Fictional Cosmos 41
3.1. Setting the Tone 41
3.1.1. Bailey’s Cafe: Bible meets Blues 43
3.1.2. Mama Day: A "Lost and Ancient" Song 55
3.1.3. Synopsis 67
3.1.3.1. Reader-Text Interaction 67
3.1.3.2. Nommos: The Power of the Spoken Word 71
3.2. The Ties that Bind: of Mothers, Virgins, and Whores 90
3.2.1. The Biblical Quilt 90
3.2.1.1. Mama Day 91
3.2.1.2. Bailey’s Cafe 98
3.2.2. The Mother Pattern 101
3.2.2.1. Mama Day 103
3.2.2.1.1. The Archmother: Sapphira 104
3.2.2.1.2. The Mediator: Mama Day 112
3.2.2.1.3. The Disciple: Cocoa 118
3.2.2.2. Bailey’s Cafe 121
3.2.2.2.1. Archmothers and Controlling Images 121
3.2.2.2.2. The Tragic Loss of Mother 123
3.2.2.3. Synopsis: The "Othermothers" 133
3.2.3. Sexuality: The Virgin-Whore Dichotomy 138
3.2.3.1. The Soloists of Bailey’s Cafe 141
3.2.3.2. Mama Day: Maternal Body 169
3.2.3.3. Between Culprit and Scapegoat: Negotiating the Male 174
3.3. Geo-psychic Spaces 180
3.3.1. Cosmogony 183
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3.3.2. Spaces of Otherness 187
3.3.2.1. Home in Ruins: Negotiating the Domestic Space 201
3.3.2.2. Sacred Space, Secret Space 209
3.3.3. Synopsis: The Gendered Space 220
4. Telling the Whole Story 232
4.1. Naylor – the Griotte 232
4.2. Every Mother a Daughter 236
4.3. Naylor’s Literary Activism 240
4.4. Redemption in Writing 243
5. Conclusion 248
Bibliography 253