Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Martin, Thomas L.

Abstract

Much of postcolonial and feminist criticisms reflect on how the oppressor-oppressed relationship of the past affects the present. However, possible-worlds theory expands these critical borders and respects the differences existing between textual world and actual world, supplying readers with the interpretive power to recognize that every past and present is complete with "possibilities" not yet explored. The fantastical elements of Gloria Naylor's narrative worlds complement the overall fiction. Through three conflicting narrative frames, she shows characters negotiating their assigned space in the inverted world of Linden Hills, not a mimetic representation exactly but reminiscent of Dante and Poe and compelling on its own. Forcing the reader to reevaluate settled assumptions about the actual world, in Linden Hills, Naylor presents the generational re-spawning, and ultimately the breaking, of patriarchy concentrated in the figure of Luther Nedeed.

Extent

55 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2002.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT12885

Format

pdf

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