Ancestral presence and epic fulfillment in Toni Morrison 's Beloved and Sula, 1994

Zauditu-Selassie, Kokahvah

1990-1999

The focal point of this study is the examination of ancestral remembrance and the effects of that presence on the epic fulfillmeht of the female heroic characters in two of Toni Morrisons novels Beloved and Sula. As a comparative study, this dissertation concerns itself with identifying the common cultural assumptions, values and traditions attributed to the African world and the African Americans illustrated in two of Morrisons novels. To this end, the ontological principles that unify African world culture and the accompanying cosmological categories delineate the discussion of motifs, images, and archetypes employed by Morrison to invoke the ancestral presence. Moreover, this study explores the use of ritual defined by deliberate rhetoric that frames apocalyptic ideas and advances epic achievement.

text

application/pdf

1994-05-01

dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Clark Atlanta University

School of Arts and Sciences, English

Twining, Mary A.
Dorsey, David F.
Baird, Keith

Clark Atlanta University

Georgia--Atlanta

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1994_zauditu_selassie_kokahvah