Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Giovanni, Nikki--Criticism and interpretation; Giovanni, Nikki; African American women in literature; African American women--Social conditions;
Abstract
Traditional sociology is negligent in the case of recognizing Black women as carriers and standards of knowledge. Sociology is dominated by egotistic white male theories of individuals and groups that exclude and invalidate the existence of Blacks in the United States, especially Black women. Furthermore, no matter how hard we try to free our work and our selves from these Eurocentric Theories, even Black women sociologists such as myself are bound by them. In spite of the limitations imposed by Eurocentric Theories, I show that Black women are carriers of knowledge by presenting an understanding of their lives during a time of upheaval. I do that through an analysis of the poetry of Nikki Giovanni, a Black woman whose writings during the 1960s and 1970s are teemed with sociological knowledge. Subjecting my perceived marginalized, non-traditional database to the scrutiny of sociology research, I utilized a qualitative methodological approach to uncover the latent meanings in Giovanni's poetry. This qualitative approach allowed me to explore the poetry meta-catalytically. I used a systemic sampling technique to gather my data from 4 books written by Giovanni during the 1960s and 1970s. I found that Giovanni's poetry reveals the process and transformation of Black women's existence during the 1960s and 1970s. The following themes emerged as I analyzed Giovanni's poems: (1) Destruction of White Society: Moving Toward Blackness, (2) A Vision of Fulfillment, (3) Black Women Longing To Be, (4) Hidden Agenda: Black Women's Loneliness, and (5) Sexual Freedom: The Re-Eroticized Black Woman. The common thread that runs through Black women's existence during this period is that they "only want to be." This project is one of many that are adding Black women to the canon of sociological knowledge.
Year of Submission
1999
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology
First Advisor
Phyllis Baker
Second Advisor
Scharron Clayton
Third Advisor
Keith Crew
Date Original
1999
Object Description
1 PDF file (143 leaves)
Copyright
©1999 Lawanda Brown
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Brown, Lawanda, "“I Only Want to Be”: Black Women Experiences as Depicted in Nikki Giovanni’s Poetry" (1999). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2186.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2186
Comments
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