Date of Award
May 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Member
Cameron F Bushnell
Committee Member
Maya Hislop
Committee Member
Nic Brown
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a conversation about whether or not narrative theory, and particularly narratology, are fields that are worth pursuing in the modern academy. With narrative theory’s intense focus on categories and binaries, it has fallen out of fashion as fields such as feminism and queer studies have begun to grow rapidly and expose the fluidity of these categories. Theorists such as Robyn Warhol and Susan Lanser have strived to find ways that narrative theory can co-exist and even enrich these newer fields of study while simultaneously learning from them. In this essay, I suggest that one of the ways narrative theory can continue to offer contributions to a variety of fields is through the study of narrative form as it relates to narrative empathy in both lyrical and legal subjects. Through close examinations of two novels written by Black women, Corregidora by Gayl Jones and The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett, I hope to show that studying narratives in a formulaic way can still offer insights outside the rigid categories of traditional narratology and that these examinations can help bolster positive representation of marginalized groups in popular narratives.
Recommended Citation
Daniel, Allison, "Interrupting the Narrative: Reader Emapthy and Authorial Resistance in Gayl Jones’s Corregidora and Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half" (2021). All Theses. 3489.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/3489