In each iteration of this genealogy, black writers conveyed strategies for racial advancement-moving forward-that relied on certain behaviors and choices black girls might make. They informed their critique through literary forms that privileged interiority to not only acknowledge the complexity of black girls’ subjectivity but also connect with the frustrated voices and thoughts of the black, urban poor in years leading up to and directly following World War II. Post-World War II, African American activists and artists created black girl characterstoexpresstheexperiencesofAfricanAmericansmigratingfromtheSouth to urban cities. Representations of black girls in the nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries were expressed in various rhetorical iterations-nurtured and protected, self-directed and self-protected, corrected and domesticated-by black women and black men wielding community standards of conduct, demands, and values to mold her into a shifting notion of the definitive citizenship model for the race. I place Shange in a literary genealogy of black girlhood from its earliest iterations in the nineteenth century to the 1970s. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ĩ6 CLA JOURNAL Ntozake Shange and a Literary Genealogy of Black Girlhood Nazera Sadiq Wright This essay honors Ntozake Shange’s contributions to the field of black girlhood studies by considering her poems within a broader network of writing on girlhood in African American literature.
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December 2022
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