Trajectories of loyalty in African -centered women's literary criticism

This dissertation presents a method for the analysis of African-American women's novels. The method is based on the principle of loyalty. Paramount to the loyalty principle are the issues of consciousness, functionality, responsibility, commitment, and empowerment. Therefore, the method demands an exploration of the ways in which the novel is responsible and committed to the Black community. The analysis seeks to ascertain whether the novel serves to affirm the experiences of African-Americans and to empower African-Americans. The loyalty method is character-driven and experientially-driven. Thus, this method focuses on presentation of characters and contextual issues. The principle of loyalty has four components: Identity, Black community, Consciousness journey, and Empowerment. Each component has a set of criteria used to assess whether a novel adheres to the principle of loyalty.;The loyalty method is informed by three analytical approaches to African-American literature: Social-Historical, Black Feminist, and Afrocentric. An examination of the nineteenth century foundations of the three schools is provided in order to demonstrate that aspects of the loyalty principle are a part of the definition of each of these approaches. This examination thereby demonstrates that aspects of the loyalty principle are firmly established in African-American literary tradition as early as the nineteenth century. Accordingly, the examination of the three literary approaches which inform the loyalty method reveals that loyalty is viable as a guiding principle for the analysis of African-American literature.;An important component of these literary schools of thought, which helps to lay the foundation for the loyalty method, is functionality. In keeping with that tradition of functionality, the loyalty method seeks to move beyond the philosophical to the instructive. Therefore, this dissertation offers instruction on how an analysis of an African-American woman's novel should proceed using the loyalty method. The loyalty method is accessible because it offers guidance on how the literary analysis should be conducted.;The application of the method is exemplified in chapters three, four, five, and six. Each of these chapters is named for a component of loyalty. Eight novels by African-American women were selected as examples. The demonstration of this method of analysis is designed to show the effectiveness of the loyalty method; and subsequently, the employment of the loyalty method on the selected novels reveals the significance of the selected texts to African-American women's literary tradition. The analysis also reveals the important ways in which the selected novels serve the Black community and are in keeping with the tradition of functionality within African-American literary history.