Abstract
African-American autobiographers, Zora Neale Hurston, Anne Moody, and Maya Angelou engage a feminine quest in order to develop their self-awareness and overcome oppression. The writers present the trope of patriarchal domination by describing their father-daughter relationships, which affect their involvement with the larger society. The women describe their battle with not only the Caucasian patriarchy, which would restrict them, but also African-American men adhering to its standards as well. The women must overcome both races’ stereotypical pretenses in order to be represented not only physically but also intellectually. The authors offset their fathers’ negative presences by locating role models in their mothers and other women in order to establish their identities and pursue the American Dream on their own terms. Refusing a male paradigm, the writers invent their own forms and cease to be bodies without voices as they attempt to forge a society devoid of sexism and racism.
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Hembrough, T. Writing as an Act of Self-Embodiment: Hurston, Moody, and Angelou Combat Systemic Racial and Sexual Oppression. J Afr Am St 20, 164–182 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-016-9326-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-016-9326-4