Spatial Narrative And National Identity:a Study Of Gwendolyn Brooks's Poetry

This dissertation explores the interplay of spatial narrative and national identity in the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, the accomplished African American poet in the 20th century. In her over-50-year literary career, Brooks carries a strong and lasting concern for black people's life and their ethnic identity. In all the stages, Brook's exploration of the reality of black American life and its representation in her texts are closely related to certain spatial forms. It means that Brooks's poetry is charged with her perception, reflection and realization of the "black space". The poet explores the race problem and the nationhood problem from a spatial perspective. Thus, the "black space" portrayed in Brooks's poetry bears the imprint of each era. Meanwhile, as the marginalized ethnicity, black people have been excluded and pressed by the dominant culture. The strivings of blackness and Americaness in the black's inner world could be described as the conflict between ethnic identity and national identity. What Brooks strives for is the reconcilement between these two strengths. The spatial narrative in the different phased of her poetry are all aimed at the different aspects of imagined and psychological construction of nationhood. Therefore, this dissertation will make exploration by dividing Brooks's literary career into four periods:from the 1940s to the early of the 1960s, the second half of the 1960s, the 1970s, and from the 1980s to the 1990s. This dissertation is composed of six parts:The Introduction part gives a brief introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks's literary career and her major works, and then reveals her literary role and legacy in African American poetry. A literature review is made to show the historical development and status quo of Gwendolyn Brooks study in both abroad and in China. Based on this survey, the object and the method of this study and the arrangement of this dissertation are present.Chapter 1 investigates the period of the 1940s to the early of 1960s in which Brooks's poetry portrays the "Black Metropolitan" on the south side of Chicago. On the one hand, the urbanization and industrialization of the black belt make the black people realize their communal cultural identity and appeal to political rights which transform the black community into the civil society. On the other hand, the racism merges with public policy. Thus, the white racists intend to maintain the hierarchy of racial relations by means of segregation policy. Brooks's poetry reveals that the spatial politics of segregation causes living problems to the black. She criticizes that the exclusiveness and hierarchy of American citizenship leads to the city's split. But meanwhile, she positively explores the way of establishing a black civil society which could serve as the discourse mechanism between the black individual and the government. Actually, the black civil society is subordinate to the dominant public sphere. It imitates the dominant one and wants to be included in it. At the same time, it challenges and overturns the dominant one. Brooks also takes the similar strategy in her literary works. She infuses the black folk elements with the European poetic form and modernism technique. The strategy of combining the dual heritages makes the compliance and defiance coexist in her poetry.Chapter 2 examines the period of black civil rights movement in the 1960s in which Brooks's poetry depicts the "black ghetto" in the inner city. The split of liberal consensus leads to the crisis of belief in and loyalty to capitalism. The unbannized black belt undergoes the process from ghettoization. Black Nationalism prevails among black Americans. They reject the way of attaining the American citizenship at the cost of their ethnicity. Instead, they strive for equal rights with the affirmation of their ethnicity. Brooks turns to the construction of heterotopic space, namely the "black nation" advocated by Black Nationalism. In order to cultivate the black readers'subjectivity and form a unified communication community, Brooks changes her target audience from the white liberals to the black Americans. Moreover, she ends her cooperation with the established white publishing house and starts to publish her work by black ones. Thus, Brooks's poetic aesthetic could be described as a poetics of address. It is worth noting that Black Nationalism exists as a critique of American liberal tradition and black nation does not mean a separate society or an autonomous country. On the contrary, their efforts for solidarity merely intend to exert the public opinion and moral pressure on the political elite, and demand the government to fulfill the promise on equal citizenship and constitutional recogonition of their status. Of course, the wake of black consciousness destabilizes Anglo-conformity model in the construction of American nationhood.Chapter 3 analyzes the late years of black power and black arts movement in the 1970s in which Brooks's poetry depicts the'"black interior" mainly constructed by black culture and tradition. Unlike the black civil rights movement, the black power movement attributes the black problem to the American constitutional system. It places the emphasis on black consciousness, black solidarity, and black pride instead of assimilation. Moreover, it claims that the black should take the charge of the administrative operation of the black community by the reallocation of political and economic power. Brooks is devoted to this cultural revolution. Her poetry appeals to the black community to maintain their cultural tradition and racial pride, and to consolidate their solidarity and unity. Brooks attempts to strengthen the black community and establish the communal values and norms. Therefore, she moves from white audience to the black one, and pointing out that these black people are in taverns, in alleys, in gutters, mines, factories, and farms. It can be concluded that Brooks's poetry creation has broken away from the restrain of written text. She highlights the performance characteristics of poetic artistry and transforms the reading material for the elite only into the cultural resources accessible to the black people. On the surface, the detachment of ethnic identity from national identity contributes to Amrican citizenship's absorptive capacity of diverse ethnic groups, but in fact, disadvantageous groups can not obtain equal citizenship rights. For this reason, with the emphasis on the creation of communial and performative poems, Brooks attempts to promote the unification and solidarity of black people and make black voice to be heard.Chapter 4 explores the period of multiculturalism in the 1980s and the 1990s in which Brooks depicts the "black homeland" from the perspective of African Diaspora. Brooks points out that it is essential for the African Americans to acknowledge their African root in order to strengthen their racial pride. The unified ethnic identity is helpful for them to assert their communal rights. At the same time, Brooks obtains a detached position to reexamine the cause of Black Liberation. She first presents the anti-apathied struggles in South Africa from the standpoint of African American, and then she reveals that the consciousness of African American is at low ebb against white supremacy from the perspective of the South Africa civil rights leaders. The trans-national thoughts of diaspora intensify the significance of African American struggle against the racial oppression and discrimination within the framwork of western imperialism and colonialism. As a country with diversity immigrants, the reconcilement between ethnic identity and national identity is essential and critical for America. The construction of African American identity challenges the assimilation model in the construction of American nationhood. Therefore, after a long history of evolution, at least in theoretical orientation, the transnational and trans-cultural features of American nationhood return to its origin when the forefethers first came to this land with their diverse religions in hope of building "a city upon a hill" for freedom and equality.The Conclusion part makes a summary of the ideas discussed in the previous parts and concludes that the interplay of spatial narrative and national identity takes place within the dichotomy of civil society and the government. Though this dissertation divides Brooks's poetry into couple of phases, it is worth noting that Brooks's lasting concerns for the neglected black people, her exploration for artistic possibility to present the race, her strivings between the ethnic identity and national identity are all composed the continuity of her lifetime poetry creation.