| Arguing for an expanded African philosophical paradigm, this investigation of dismembered characters and supernatural love initiates the remarkable theory that "ancient Egyptian" archetypes map the Black, postmodern condition. Beloved (Toni Morrison), No Telephone to Heaven (Michelle Cliff), and Osiris Rising (Ayi Kwei Armah) ostensibly narrate African-American, Caribbean and West African experiences while unfurling motifs of dismemberment, ascension and star crossed romance dating back to 13,000 B.C. when Kemetic matricentrism flourished in the pre-dynastic Nile Valley of Africa. The Kemetic principle of spiritual primacy and mutability thematically represented in the novels deconstructs the racial and gender binaries substantiated by traditional African American literary criticism. |
