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Simone James Alexander
African-American Studies, Seton Hall University
"Migratory Subjects: The Politics of Dis/placement and Dis/possession in Edwidge Danticat’s Fiction"
Melissa Feinberg
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
"Women and Czech Democracy"
Susan Markens
Sociology, Temple University
"Genetic Counselors' Work Practices"
Feng Qiu
English, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China
"Female Body as Discourse in Lessing's Children of Violence: Silencing and Resistance
Simone James Alexander
African-American Studies, Seton Hall University
"Migratory Subjects: The Politics of Dis/placement and Dis/possession in Edwidge Danticat’s Fiction"
This project investigates the ways in which Caribbean author, Edwidge Danticat, reconfigures the discourse on migrations and diasporas. Analyzing the “gendering” of migrations and migratory experiences, I explore the ways that Danticat challenges the masculinist representations of diasporas, migrations, home and travel. Home and trauma are pivotal issues in Breath, Eyes, Memory in which all manifestations of home are broken in the life of raped and later exiled character, Martine Caco. The “colonization” of Martine’s body through rape drives her out of home and re-charts her face as a woman. Danticat critiques the makeup of patriarchal societies by demonstrating how male violence against women impacts on her female characters. Employing the concept of Créolité or creolization as a precursor to the discourses on Caribbean migrations and diasporas, I argue that Edouard Glissant’s rhizomic theory of diaspora offers a viable framework within to read Danticat’s narrative and rethink diasporic identities and relations.
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