Mixed Race Studies

The Dialogue About “Racial Democracy” Among African-American and Afro-Brazilian Literatures

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2008
262 pages

Isabel Cristina Rodrigues Ferreira

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures (Portuguese).

This dissertation focuses on the myth of racial democracy in the works of African-American and Afro-Brazilian writers in the early and late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Their novels, short stories, and a play dialogue among each other. The African-American novels Passing (1929) of Nella Larsen and Caucasia (1998) of Danzy Senna reflect on their perception of Brazilian reality of racial democracy, which was related to their own racial realities. Both authors use Brazilian racial harmony as an option to their characters to experience a different racial relation that did not involve segregation in the 1920s or violent acts in the 1960s and 1970s. The Afro-Brazilian selection of stories reflects on the Brazilian reality for Afrodescendants, which presents no sign of racial harmony. The novels Vida e morte de M. J. Gonzaga de Sá (1919) and Clara dos Anjos (1923-24) of Lima Barreto, Malungos e milongas (1988) of Esmeralda Ribeiro and Ponciá Vicêncio (2003) of Conceição Evaristo; the unpublished play Uma boneca no lixo of Cristiane Sobral; and short stories of Cuti, Márcio Barbosa, Éle Semog, Esmeralda Ribeiro, Oubi Inaê Kibuko, Conceição Evaristo, Lia Vieira and Cristiane Sobral show that Afro-Brazilian reality in the 1920s and in the late twentieth and early twentieth-first centuries is of discrimination, and prejudice, but they reflect on non-violent solutions to fight against their fate.

In Chapter One, I introduce the subject of racial democracy, which will be discussed in two African-American novels and some Afro-Brazilian literary works. Chapters Two and Three are overviews of Brazilian history, examining the role and perception of Afro-descendants by society, and Afro-Brazilian literature throughout the centuries, respectively. The former helps readers understand how important the myth of racial democracy was to maintain the order and power to those controlling the country’s economy and politics. Chapter Four examines African-American novels, relating them not only to their perception of Brazil, but also to their own history and racial relations. Chapter Five shows different racial issues discussed in some of the works. These interpretations of Brazilian racial reality can dismantle the discourse of the myth of racial democracy. The last Chapter is the conclusion of what I presented and discussed in the previous chapters and some thoughts about future research topics.

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Ambivalent examples: The multiple Creole subjects of Spanish American nineteenth-century narrative

University of Pennsylvania
2006
371 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3225427
ISBN: 9780542797194

Elisabeth L. Austin

This dissertation proposes a paradigm for 19th-century Spanish American Creole subjectivity that considers it to be a multiple, unstable construct rather than a coherent or constant entity. From this premise I explore exemplarity as a rhetorical mode that seeks to engage its reader’s subjectivity, and I posit that exemplary narrative becomes not only a site of subjectivity construction for the Creole reader but also a place for negotiating the problematics of the liberal order at the end of the 19th century. I maintain that reading exemplary narrative as an articulation of multiple Creole subjectivity allows us to study the contradictions and indeterminate pedagogy of many of these texts, and therefore to better analyze the ambivalence and problems they describe. My project investigates the work of four authors: Eugenio Cambaceres (Argentina), José Martí (Cuba), Clorinda Matto de Turner (Peru), and Juana Manuela Gorriti (Argentina). Cambaceres’s four novels—Potpourri: silbidos de un vago (1882), Música sentimental (1884), Sin rumbo (1885), and En la sangre (1887)—establish a social critique that culminates in the invention of a Creole national subject, depicted as a father figure for the future mestiza America, who is ultimately rendered non-viable within these narratives. Martí’s only novel, Lucía Jerez (1885), articulates a profound gender anxiety that threatens Martí’s ideal “natural man” and problematizes his dreams of solidarity and miscegenation as part of a future American identity. Matto’s Aves sin nido (1889) argues for liberal political intervention on behalf of Peruvian Indians while it simultaneously launches a critique of liberal ideology as an insufficient instrument of such change. Finally, I read Gorriti’s cookbook, Cocina ecléctica (1890), as a text that exemplifies multiple Creole subjectivity and negotiates authority and gender within irreducibly plural models of feminine subjectivity. These narratives profess pedagogical pretensions that are questioned and at times undermined within the texts themselves, and my dissertation argues that such contradictions illustrate rather than resolve the crises of Creole ideology and subjectivity brought about by the failure of Spanish American liberalism at the end of the 19th century.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction: The Creole as Problematic Subject(ivity)
• 1. (De)Constructing Creole America: Fractured Nineteenth-Century Power and Politics
• 2. Creole Fictions: Hybridity and Indeterminacy in Nineteenth-Century Spanish American Literature
• 3. The Ethics of Criollismo: National Subjectivity in Eugenio Cambaceres
• 4. Monstrous Progeny: Gender Trouble and Fragile Virility in Jose Marti’s Lucía Jerez
• 5. Bastardized Faith and Unanswered Prayers: Impotent Readership in Clorinda Matto de Turner’s Aves sin nido
• Conclusion: Creole Subjectivities Inside Out: Writing Culture and Authority in Juana Manuela Gorriti’s Cocina ecléctica
• Works Cited

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An Exploration of Healthy Adjustment in Biracial Young Adults

Univesity of California, Davis
2008
175 pages

Tamu Corrine Nolfo

A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Human Development

Given the historically negative views of interracial marriages and mixed race children proliferating the popular American social consciousness, it is legitimate to question whether mixed race youth can achieve healthy psychosocial development in this country, and if so, what are the factors that contribute to positive outcomes despite adverse or hostile sociopolitical circumstances?

There were a total of 30 participants in this study: 13 male and 17 female, ages 22-26, living in various regions of the United States, who had one parent who identified as White/Caucasian and one who identified as Asian/Asian American, Black/African American, or Hispanic/Latino/a. The participants were free of a history of felony convictions, substance abuse and suicide attempts. They completed both an informational questionnaire and a 90-minute telephone interview.

Results of the study highlighted that biracial individuals are not doomed because of their dual heritage, despite this emphasis in earlier research. It is entirely possible to be well adjusted in a number of respects: meeting personal expectations; attainment of close family and other social relationships; comfortable with ethnic/racial identity; bicultural competence and sense of inclusion in desired community(ies); social justice; and sense of self-efficacy in raising own multiracial child(ren).

There is not agreement from the participants on a set formula for success, but overriding themes include having a loving and supportive family that preferably stays intact; connections with all of one’s cultural heritage, but not necessarily with family or community members who are belittling or disrespectful; egalitarian messages that neither promote self-oppression nor self-superiority; opportunities to explore, normalize and celebrate the mixed race experience; and the freedom to self-define over time and context, even when these choices are not congruent with family or community expectations.

All individuals, families and communities in this study demonstrated the ability to both support and hinder healthy biracial development. Results did not differ with regard to demographic nuances of gender, racial composition, socio-economic status (SES), or geographic location.

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Growing Up Biracial in a Southern Elementary School

Georgia Southern University
May 2009
139 pages

Julie Kight

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

This dissertation explored the relationship between racial identity of biracial children (defined as fifty percent Black and fifty percent White) and their academic experiences in a southern elementary school setting. This dissertation ventured further to explore the curriculum in a southern elementary school setting and whether it meets the academic needs of the biracial child and includes the biracial child.

This dissertation reflected on artifacts collected and analyzed narratives from the participants involved. These participants included six biracial female smdents in grades three through five. The current research employed Critical Race Theory as its theoretical framework. Critical Race Theory is an analytical framework which focuses on inequalities related to race, class, and gender. It was firmly based in the field of Curriculum Studies. The researcher provided a history of the South, multiculturalism, and whiteness in the United States. The researcher also included past and current curriculum researchers and the results of their studies as compared to the present research.

Included in this dissertation are reviews of the current research including qualitative data through student drawings and interviews of students as well as parents, teachers, and administrators. It also included quantitative data through the analysis of CRCT scores and administrative records.

The conclusions of the current research were 1) there is a relationship between racial identity and academic experiences and 2) the biracial child was not included in the textbook, however, the biracial child’s academic needs were met for purposes of standardized test scores. One hundred percent of the biracial students felt they had a positive educational experience in this southern elementary school. However, the researcher found this not to be accurate after further review of all the data. The parents felt their biracial children were welcomed at this school and while suffering some racial prejudices such as “picking”, they felt it was no more than the average elementary child. The teachers acknowledged the lack of information for the biracial child in their textbooks and searched to find information for the biracial child through videos, classroom libraries, and media centers. The researcher notes that while these teachers did attempt to fill the gaps left in the curriculum, it was at a minimal level and much more needs to be done. The teachers in this school system do maintain they incorporate race in the units they are teaching as well as how race relates to all individuals involved in the past and the present. They search out the previous avenues for all children. However, in the case of the biracial child and all children, this must be done on a daily basis and not just when a chapter calls for the discussion.

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Uncertainty and evolution: Contributions to identity development for female college students who identify as multiracial/biracial-bisexual/pansexual

Iowa State University
2008
322 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3310805
ISBN: 9780549596066

Alissa Renee King

A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

In this study, I explored how female college students who identify as multiracial/biracial-bisexual/pansexual made meaning of their racial and sexual identities, how they described their identity development process, and the ways in which college contributed to their identity formation. Utilizing a proposed model of biracial-bisexual identity development and the ecology of student development model as foundations for this study, I sought to better understand the experiences both before and during college, and the impacts of those two environments on the processes of racial and sexual identity formation for the female college students in this study. Findings, based on in-depth interviews, revealed that the females in this study were impacted in different ways during the pre-college experience and during college, with influences coming from family, peers, and the school setting before college. The themes during the college experience at the time of the interviews were related to Trying On new labels, Negotiating Self within a variety of spaces, and Finding Fit in places where the participants felt safe and supported. Findings also revealed that context had the biggest impact on identity development and that racial and sexual identity were primarily separate processes rather than intersecting experiences. I offered contributions to biracial-bisexual identity models and I shared recommendations for current practice and future research to better serve females in both secondary and post-secondary institutions who identify as multiracial/biracial-bisexual/pansexual.

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In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

Florida State University
2007
78 pages

Katrina Songanett Smith

A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
 
This thesis examines both historical and fictional representations of interracial relationships in the 18th century. My argument in this project is two-fold. First, I argue that some black women used sexual relationships with white men to gain advantages for themselves and their fellow slaves. Second, I argue that novelists of the time period re-wrote history in an attempt to erase the positive aspects of miscegenation.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Historical Accounts of Black Women’s Sexuality and Strategies of Resistance: The Narratives of Mary Prince, Thomas Thistlewood, John Stedman, Maria Nugent, and Janet Schaw
• Chapter Two: The Revenge of the Shrew: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
• Chapter Three: The Sacrifice of the Colored Woman in J.W. Orderson’s Creoleana
• Epilogue
• Works Cited

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afro look: Die Geschichte einer Zeitschrift von schwarzen Deutschen

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
May 2000
245 pages
Publication Number: AAT 9978512
ISBN: 9780599844605

Francine Jobatey

Submitted to the Graduate School of the University  Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures

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Irrevocable Ties and Forgotten Ancestry: The Legacy of Colonial Intermarriage for Descendents of Mixed Ancestry

University of British Columbia, Vancouver
April 2008
56 pages

Kim S. Dertien

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Anthropology)

The identities of mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal descendents in British Columbia is as varied as it is complex. In this paper I examine what caused some people of mixed Native and non-Native ancestry not to identify as Aboriginal while others did. The point of fracture for those who identify with their Aboriginal origins and those who do not can be traced to a specific time in our history. More importantly, specific variables were instrumental in causing that divergence of identity, spurred by a pervasive social stigma in colonial society. For many of mixed ancestry, the disassociation from their Aboriginal identity led to generations of silence and denial and eventually to a ‘complete disappearance of race’. It was a deliberate breeding out of cultural identity through assimilative ideology and actions in order to conform to European norms.

Determining what factors caused this divergence of identity for mixed-descendents entails considering why many Aboriginal women married non-Native partners in B.C. during the mid-19th century, how intermarriage affected identity formation for offspring, and what the multi-generational effects have been on the identities of mixed descendents. Today, this leaves a dilemma for those in-between who are eligible for status, and for those who are not but who choose to reconnect with, acknowledge and learn more of their ancestry. Both assertions of First Nations identity and choices to reconnect with a First Nations heritage while maintaining a non-Native identity, challenge the assumed inevitability of assimilation, and the federal government’s continuing reluctance to understand the cultural significance of identification as ‘Indian’.

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Constructing Dialogue, Constructing Identites: Mixed Heritage Identity Construction in “Half and Half”

Georgetown University
2009-04-16
55 pages

Anissa Jane Sorokin

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Language and Communication

This paper examines how mixed heritage authors featured in the book Half and Half use constructed dialogue, also known as reported speech, to construct their identities as bi-ethnic, bi-racial, and bi-cultural individuals. Constructed dialogue, which is often representative of previous social interactions, functions frequently as a tool for identity construction in a literary form, strongly suggesting that mixed heritage identity is in many ways formed through talk. Through constructed dialogue, narrators can explain how what was said has contributed to who they feel they are, and often allows them to portray themselves as agents who take an active role in forming identities. Authors use constructed dialogue to convey stances that signal distance from a group, alignment with a group, or a sense of living a dual-culture identity. The analysis of constructed dialogue in Half and Half adds to an understanding of how mixed heritage narrators see themselves in relation to the world around them, and vividly highlights the role words may play in the constructions of their identities.

Table of Contents

• 1. INTRODUCTION
• 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
  • 2.1 Defining Reported Speech
  • 2.2 Reported Speech as a Misnomer
  • 2.3 Layers of Voices in Constructed Dialogue
  • 2.4 Reported Speech and Identity Construction
  • 2.5 The Importance of Context
  • 2.6 What is Autobiography?
  • 2.7 Some Notes on Ethnicity, Race, and Mixed Heritage People
• 3. METHODOLOGY
  • 3.1 What Kind of a Book is Half and Half?
  • 3.2 Data Collection and Analysis
• 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
  • 4.1 What Are You? Where Are You From?
  • 4.2 Questioning Authenticity
  • 4.3 Identifying as the Other: Early Experiences with Racial Name-Calling
  • 4.4 Constructing Mixed Heritage Identity Through Linguistic Features
• 5. CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

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The arresting eye: Race and the detection of deception

University of Southern California
December 2005
282 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3220115
ISBN: 9780542713217

Jinny Huh

A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ENGLISH)

With increasing rates of miscegenation and racially invisible bodies, how is race to be determined? This dissertation examines the dynamics and discourse of race detection through a comparative analysis of detective fiction and passing narratives, two genres that witnessed a simultaneous rise during the mid-nineteenth century. I argue that the detective fiction genre in many ways prospers and responds to the anxiety of racial indecipherability by creating a systematic method of detection. By examining narratives of detection and passing written by both white and ethnic authors ranging from Arthur Conan Doyle and Earl Derr Biggers to Pauline Hopkins and Winnifred Eaton, among others, this study demonstrates that the politics and mechanics of race detection is highly specific to the eye of the gazer attuned to distinguishing the signs of race. For example, while Dupin and Holmes may exhibit mystically and supernaturally intuitive powers, Pauline Hopkins (author of the first African American detective in Hagar’s Daughter) shows that intuition and race detection is a necessary component of the African American community. On the other hand, Winnifred Eaton (the first Asian American novelist) responds to the obsession with detection by promoting a rhetoric of undetection in the emergence of Asian American fiction. Finally, in response to Eaton’s celebration of undetection within the Asian American context, Earl Derr Biggers’s Charlie Chan series demonstrate the anxieties of promoting an Asian American detective hero during the height of Yellow Peril paranoia.

In addition to examining the politics of race detection in literature, this dissertation also explores how numerous disciplines formulate their own concepts of “racial knowledges” via a discourse of detection (such as film studies, visual studies, law, ethnography, and literary history). As such, through a comparative focus which encompasses multiple levels (19th/20th century, male/female, British/American, African American/Asian American, literature/film), my study also addresses the potential threat and implications of racial erasure to Ethnic Studies specifically and Civil Rights overall.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Whispers of Norbury: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Modernist Crisis of Racial (Un)Detection
• Chapter Two: Intuitive Faculties and Racial Clairvoyance: Pauline Hopkins and the Emergence of Multiethnic Detective Fiction
• Chapter Three: The Legacy of Winnifred Eaton: Ethnic Ambidexterity, Undetection as Guerilla Tactics, and the Emergence of Asian American Fiction
• Chapter Four: “The Jaundiced Eye”: Charlie Chan and the Mysterious Disappearance of a Detective Hero
• Bibliography

Purchase the dissertation here.