A Black Woman's Quest For The Third Space

Many critics have explored various aspects of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the most acclaimed book by Zora Neale Hurston. This M.A. thesis aims to explore the impact of racial and sexual discrimination imposed on Janie, a black woman, as well as her quest for her own position in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. I choose terms specific to postcolonial and feminist discourse such as self/other, race, gender, the third space, etc. in my discussion of decolonization and sexual and cultural identities. For Janie, the third space means her hybrid racial and sexual identity of both white materialism and black spiritualism, both masculinity and femininity, going beyond the self/other definition, in opposition to the postcolonial and patriarchal society.The first part of Chapter One explores how the white differentiate the black as the other from their self. The second part addresses the problem related to the"double-consciousness"growing in the black's mind and the two extreme attitudes towards the dominant white culture: assimilation and exclusivism, which are embodied by Janie's two husbands: Joe and Tea Cake.When black men fail to define themselves with the encroaching double-consciousness in the post-colonial discourse, they find a new chance to regain power in the patriarchal system where men are deemed as the superior self while women the inferior other. Chapter Two in this thesis discusses Nanny's function as a supporter for male domination, and explores how Janie's three husbands objectify her, subordinating her to their requirements.The interaction between postcolonialism and feminism sheds light on the question of the double colonization of black women. They have to combat discrimination from both the colonial and the patriarchal self. Therefore, in the process of decolonization, through vision and voice, Janie tries to seek her own position, an interstice between the self and the other. Homi Bhabha opens up a way to"the third space", the space of new forms of cultural meaning and production that blurs the limitations of existing boundaries, and calls...