Date of Award
Fall 9-8-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Frederick Staidum
Second Advisor
Suzanne Bost
Abstract
This dissertation examines the role literature plays in understanding black life post-reconstruction and post-civil rights movement. Specifically, I explore the continuation of injustices and mistreatment for black workers, the role black labor plays during the first and second post-reconstructions, and how literature can be used in framing this discussion. The similarities between these periods help us to better understand the cycle of racist societal expectations and the challenges black workers face integrating into society, discriminatory mandates required of black workers, the unfair job market, and forced labor. These periods interact cyclically in that the second post-reconstruction models the first post-reconstruction. Both periods contain moments of hope and progression as demonstrated through nationwide ordinances and moments of hopelessness and regression due to minimal or no change. I argue that literature is a complex aesthetic construction whose relation to social reality must be investigated. My focus on temporality and narratives provides a way that literature uniquely speaks to the questions regarding black labor and workers.
Recommended Citation
Walton, Courtney, "Cyclical Matters: Black Labor, Temporality, and the Incomplete Reconstructions within African American Literature" (2025). Dissertations. 4232.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/4232
