‘The Power of Three Will Set Us Free': Witchy Womanist Readings of Toni Morrison’s Sula, Opal Palmer Adisa’s It Begins With Tears, and Migdalia Cruz’s The Have-Little and Miriam’s Flowers

<p>Witchy womanism is a critical methodology for reading, teaching, and writing about literature in order to generate emancipatory knowledge, activate Queer, Black, and Indigenous consciousnesses, contribute to 21^st century women’s, Black, and Indigenous liberation movements, and foster (re)connections to ancestral rituals and knowledge. Born at the intersections of Black Studies, BIPOC Queer and Gender Studies, Caribbean Studies, English, Hip-Hop Studies and Latinx Studies, “‘The Power of Three Will Set Us Free’: Witchy Womanist Readings of Toni Morrison's <em>Sula</em>, Opal Palmer Adisa's <em>It Begins With Tears</em>, and Migdalia Cruz's <em>The Have-Little </em>and <em>Miriam's Flowers</em>" is a multidisciplinary analysis of AfroIndigenous diasporic women's literature written in the late 20th century. Drawing on the theories and practices of third and fourth-wave Black, Latina, Indigenous, and Arab feminists along with 21st century movements including #MeToo and #SayHerName, this dissertation celebrates pussy power, the rise of the witch/bruja ,and the return to African and Indigenous spiritual traditions from my Queer, Latina, femme, scholar-activist-educator perspective. Witchy womanism is a literary theory, a best practice in education, and a liberatory strategy and methodology that can guide us into a progressive, inclusive, revolutionary future inside and outside of academia where we let go of cisgender heteronormativity and patriarchy, white supremacy, cissexism, ableism, and all other manners of thinking that limit our imaginations, our bodies, and our souls. Another world—academic and otherwise—is indeed possible if we follow a witchy womanist roadmap for repair, healing, and transformation.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Flores, Anamaría

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ammiel Alcalay

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Duncan Faherty
• Sonali Perera

• African American Studies
• Arts and Humanities
• Ethnic Studies
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Hip Hop Studies
• Latina/o Studies
• Puerto Rican Studies
• Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
• Women's Studies
• Witchy Womanism
• Pussy Power
• BIPOC Feminisms
• Queer Consciousness
• Black Consciousness
• Yoniverse

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5686

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-6790