Masculinities Of Black Men In Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day

Gloria Naylor is one of the most significant women writers in the history of African American literature. She has published another five novels since the first publication of The Women of Brewster Place, which helped her win National Book Award in1983and also earns her reputation, making her a rising star after famous African American women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison. Mama Day is Naylor’s third novel. Set in New York and the isolated black community of Willow Springs, this novel explores and questions the concept of reality and at the same time celebrates the romantic yet problematic love through the multi-perspective narrative.The study on masculinity in China is relatively rare compared to flourishing studies on feminism, making the study of gender more like the synonym of women’s study. In view of this situation, I attempt to approach Mama Day from the perspective of black masculinity, trying to analyze different masculinities the black male characters in this novel manifest and to assess Naylor’s reflection towards the construction of masculinity.Firstly, with the analysis of the male-female relationship in the novel, it is argued that the three male characters manifest their various masculinities through different ways and their wives have played an important role in the construction of their masculinities. Gloria Naylor absorbs the positive elements in the traditional masculinity in the context of patriarchy and dissolves the negative elements such as hegemony, violence and overemphasis on sexuality.Secondly, through analyzing the absence of the father’s role and the male protagonist’s alienation from the black cultural traditions in Mama Day, I intend to explore their negative influences on the construction of a black male’s masculinity. Through the novel, Naylor calls for the return of the father’s role and points out that the black traditional culture plays an important role in the reconstruction of black masculinity.In summary, the construction of masculinities of black men needs the joint efforts of men and women and calls for the return of the father’s role and traditional culture. It is hoped that this study will enrich the current research on black masculinity.