CHUNKS OF THE SELF, CHOPS OF SOCIETY: AN ALAZONIC-EIRONIC REVISIONING OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN FEMALE IN GLORIA NAYLOR’S MAMA DAY

Abstract

The present paper aims to contextualize the alazonic-eironic equation within the quintessential Black female narrative matrix of Gloria Naylor’s third novel, Mama Day (1988). The paper pays special emphasis on the existential blessings and curses experienced by Black women, such as Sapphira Wade, Mama Day, and Cocoa, along with the benefits and losses emanating in a diasporic context, besides personifying the triumphs of these Black women when they attain an alazonic self. In Mama Day, the eironic-alazonic disequilibrium within the boundaries of gender politics, assumes a new status when these women break the shackles of male-hegemony and eventually succeed in investing themselves within an alazonic status, a remarkable departure from their earlier tribulations as eironic humans who would be helplessly victimized.