The Female Bildungsroman

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Date
2020
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Publisher
Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
'Who Am I?' is the most familiar question that comes to the mind when dealing with the bildungsroman genre of literature. Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees belongs to this genre. It tells the story of the motherless fourteen-year-old Lily Owens who searches for evidence to unlock her mother's reasons for leaving. The story takes place during the Civil-war period where the Black race suffered from segregation and racism. In the light of such circumstances, Kidd lived and wrote. Through her pen, Kidd uncovers the great role the black community has in the protagonist's moral, emotional, and physical growth. So, this study aims at examining the protagonist's identity construction in light of black women influence. Because race is one of the aspects that is related strongly to identity, this dissertation tends also to investigate how Kidd's protagonist develops a new white identity. As such, the study combines the Freudian theory of Personality Elements, Carl Jung's Archetypal Criticism and Janet Helms' White Racial Identity Development Model to reach its aims. To better approach the objectives, this dissertation will be divided into three main chapters. The first chapter highlights the aspects that Kidd's bildungsroman involves to make it distinguishable compared to other texts. It also introduces the theoretical background that will be included in this research. The second chapter aims to examine the developmental stages of Lily's personality in view of Freud's model. The final chapter clarifies the several stages the protagonist undergoes to overcome her racist thoughts and rediscover a new non-racist white identity.
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Keywords
Black women, Bildungsroman, Lily owens, Identity construction
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