Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) vividly captures the lived experiences of African Americans in the rural Southern United States amidst the enduring legacies of slavery and the ongoing impact of racial subjugation. This article focuses on the novel’s portrayal of its Black chara...
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Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2024
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/1/Gema%20Online_24_4_20.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/ https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1775 |
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| author | Wan Fang, Mohammad Ewan Awang, Noritah Omar, |
| author_facet | Wan Fang, Mohammad Ewan Awang, Noritah Omar, |
| author_sort | Wan Fang, |
| building | Tun Sri Lanang Library |
| collection | Institutional Repository |
| content_provider | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| content_source | UKM Journal Article Repository |
| continent | Asia |
| country | Malaysia |
| description | Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) vividly captures the lived experiences of African
Americans in the rural Southern United States amidst the enduring legacies of slavery and the
ongoing impact of racial subjugation. This article focuses on the novel’s portrayal of its Black
characters and articulation of the Black body to demonstrate how the Black body not only bears
the scars of systemic, historical-social injustice but also functions as a site of recuperation.
Building upon George Yancy’s concept of “the agential Black body”, the article contends that
affirming the Black body requires acknowledging the epistemic violence imposed upon it and
recognising the body’s potential to transcend such limitations. Yancy’s concept of Black
affirmation and modalities of Black ontology, including storytelling and musicking, are especially
relevant in this article’s analysis of Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. These elements illustrate how, in
the novel, the Black body—through embodied self-articulation—testifies to moments of violation
and uses those moments to re-inscribe itself. Thus, the Black body expands beyond the limited and
essentialist (white) configurations, and gestures towards its state of possibilities. The article argues
that the novel’s narrative techniques and its engagement with African American literary traditions
re-visibilise and manifest the resilience of the Black body. |
| format | Article |
| id | my-ukm.journal.25033 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| language | en |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | my-ukm.journal.250332025-04-10T12:06:06Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/ Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing Wan Fang, Mohammad Ewan Awang, Noritah Omar, Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) vividly captures the lived experiences of African Americans in the rural Southern United States amidst the enduring legacies of slavery and the ongoing impact of racial subjugation. This article focuses on the novel’s portrayal of its Black characters and articulation of the Black body to demonstrate how the Black body not only bears the scars of systemic, historical-social injustice but also functions as a site of recuperation. Building upon George Yancy’s concept of “the agential Black body”, the article contends that affirming the Black body requires acknowledging the epistemic violence imposed upon it and recognising the body’s potential to transcend such limitations. Yancy’s concept of Black affirmation and modalities of Black ontology, including storytelling and musicking, are especially relevant in this article’s analysis of Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. These elements illustrate how, in the novel, the Black body—through embodied self-articulation—testifies to moments of violation and uses those moments to re-inscribe itself. Thus, the Black body expands beyond the limited and essentialist (white) configurations, and gestures towards its state of possibilities. The article argues that the novel’s narrative techniques and its engagement with African American literary traditions re-visibilise and manifest the resilience of the Black body. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2024 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/1/Gema%20Online_24_4_20.pdf Wan Fang, and Mohammad Ewan Awang, and Noritah Omar, (2024) Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 24 (4). pp. 371-386. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1775 |
| spellingShingle | Wan Fang, Mohammad Ewan Awang, Noritah Omar, Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title | Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title_full | Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title_fullStr | Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title_short | Agential black body in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| title_sort | agential black body in jesmyn ward’s sing, unburied, sing |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/1/Gema%20Online_24_4_20.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25033/ https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1775 |
| url_provider | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/ |