Date
5-2013
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Master of Arts in English (MA)
Chair
Yaw Adu-Gyamfi
Primary Subject Area
Literature, Asian; Literature, Comparative; Literature, General; Literature, Modern; Black Studies
Disciplines
African American Studies | Comparative Literature | English Language and Literature | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Modern Literature
Recommended Citation
Koshy, Lovely, "Spice Sisters: Religion, Freedom and Escape of Women in African American and Indian Literatures" (2013). Masters Theses. 283.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/283
Abstract
This thesis focuses on women in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and Rabindranath Tagore's three short stories. Hansberry writes during a period in America when racism, segregation, and black migration to the North weighed heavy upon the psyche of black women. Tagore writes during a time when British control, sati system, caste system, and dharma leave Indian women voiceless. Both express their disagreement with entrenched norms and institutions that have been in place for hundreds of years, a task that initially may seem to be an impossible undertaking, and unlikely to bring about expected change. This work reveals that a woman of low-caste Indian society can fight against dharma and subjugation and win, that an old, retired black woman equipped with her Christian faith can fight against segregation and racism and win.
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Modern Literature Commons
