Abstract EN:

Gayl jones and toni morrison convey a completely different representation of afro-american women in american letters. The long-accepted american stereotypes related to sex and gender are challenged by them through their revisionary treatment of american history in the public and private lives of their heroines. (re) membering for them is at once a necessary and complex process of getting at the truth concerning african-american women. These writers present portraits of "arrested" or "emerging" black women beginning with the period of the "peculiar institution" through to presentday america. Gayl jones insists on the psychological and physical damage suffered by black women whereas toni morrison suggests in her narratives the potential for building a new jubjectivity which involves risk but offers the means to explore the redemptive possibilities of female coalescence. Both authors have inaugurated new forms of writing which incorporate their black oral tradition. Taking their inspiration from the blues -their lyricism, sheer strength, concentration and poetic qualities- gayl jones' heroines sing who they are and where they come from. Toni morrison writes her fiction using a highly metaphorical prose which comes close to the magic realism of garcia marquez.