Abstract
Within the traditional Christian discourse of love, redemption is most often available through an act of self-sacrifice. This project aims to examine alternate models of redemption within contemporary black women’s fiction that both critique, and alleviate the necessity for, a gendered act of self-sacrifice. The collected writings of bell hooks explore an interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism, which proposes a “worldwide love ethic” that is centered on the assimilation of self and an emerging global community. Gayl Jones’ Corregidora critiques the notion of slave redemption through maternity, and blues music opens a space of collective catharsis and salvation. Jones’ Song for Anninho creates a space for healing and redemptive love in the face of violence and geographic dislocation by merging African religious beliefs and Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. Similarly, in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, an alternative to self-sacrifice appears through a merging of masculine and feminine will and desire and a privileging of the natural world through the African American conjure tradition. All of these texts seek to examine how black women progress from fragmentation to wholeness through spirituality, sexuality, and a connection to the global community.
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