Spatializing race, gender and identity in Gloria Naylor's The women of brewster place and Toni Morrison's Paradise

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to present a study of the novels The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor, and Paradise, by Toni Morrison, with a focus on the literary spaces displayed in these works and their influence in the identity formation of their main characters. The spaces of Brewster Place community and its wall, as well as the town Ruby and its mansion entitled the Convent, evidence disparities in relation to notions of race and gender, being regarded as racialized and gendered spaces. These spaces, in turn, influence the identity formation of the female characters of the novels. In order to carry out the study of gendered and racialized spaces, it was necessary to examine the theoretical background behind the formation of spaces and the power relations imbued in them, with theoreticians such as Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey contributing extensively to the research. Prominent authors in the field or race studies and gender studies, such as Caroline Knowles, Carole Boyce Davies and Margaret Higonnet contributed in creating an overview of the experience of black women in the United States. Finally, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks and Linda Martín Alcoff are studied in this dissertation in light of processes of identity formation. Moreover, in the literary analysis of the present work, a comparative study of the novels is provided in order to trace parallels between the influence of the spaces displayed in the novels and the identities of their characters.