Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Machado, Elena
Abstract
This dissertation proposes that West Indian contemporary male writers develop literary authority, or a voice that represents the nation, via a process of individuation. This process enables the contemporary male writer to unite the disparities of the matriarchal and patriarchal authorial traditions that inform his development of a distinctive creative identity. I outline three stages of authorial individuation that are inspired by Jung’s theory of individuation. The first is the contemporary male writer’s return to his nationalist forebears’ tradition to dissolve his persona, or identification with patriarchal authority; Fred D’Aguiar’s “The Last Essay About Slavery” and Feeding the Ghosts illustrate this stage. The second is his reconciliation of matriarchal (present) and patriarchal (past) traditions of literary authority via his encounter with his forebears’ feminized, raced shadow; Robert Antoni’s Blessed Is the Fruit evidences this process. The third is the contemporary male writer’s renunciation of authority defined by masculinity, which emerges as his incorporation of the anima, or unconscious feminine; Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women exemplifies this final phase of his individuation.
Extent
261 p.
Recommended Citation
Gifford, Sheryl C., "(Re)making men, representing the Caribbean Nation: authorialIndividuation in works by Fred D’Aguiar, Robert Antoni, andMarlon James" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019. 675.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_6/675
Identifier
FA0004021
Comments
Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.|Includes bibliography.