“The Beloved Purple of Their Eyes: Inheriting Bessie Smith’s Politics of Sexuality”

Autores/as

  • Marta Miquel-Baldellou Universitat de Lleida

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20079763

Palabras clave:

Feminismo afroamericano, Blues, Género y sexualidad, Bessie Smith, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison

Resumen

A Bessie Smith se la conoce tradicionalmente como la Emperatriz del Blues. Gracias a su potente voz y a su atrevida puesta en escena, llegó a ser la primera y más popular de las artistas afroamericanas de todos los tiempos. A través de las letras de sus canciones, ponía de manifiesto las dificultades a las que se exponían las mujeres afroamericanas de su tiempo, centrando sus letras en las adversidades, la sexualidad y las relaciones que establecían con hombres y otras mujeres. Las políticas de género desarrolladas en las canciones de Bessie Smith también se repiten a menudo en las novelas de escritoras canónicas como Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker y Toni Morrison. Zora Neale Hurston fue contemporánea de Bessie y la conoció durante uno de sus viajes, mientras que Alice Walker y Toni Morrison admitieron la influencia que Bessie Smith ejerció sobre sus obras. El objetivo de este artículo consiste en identificar las políticas sexuales de Bessie Smith en las novelas Their Eyes Were Watching God de Zora Neale Hurston, The Colour Purple de Alice Walker y Beloved de Toni Morrison, de acuerdo con las nuevas perspectivas dentro de los estudios feministas afroamericanos actuales.

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Citas

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Publicado

2007-12-31

Cómo citar

Miquel-Baldellou, M. (2007). “The Beloved Purple of Their Eyes: Inheriting Bessie Smith’s Politics of Sexuality”. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 36, 67–88. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20079763