Ourika and Sibila of the Andes: two Nineteenth Century Black Female Protagonists
Titles of the Individual Presentations in a Panel
Ourika and Sibila of the Andes: two Nineteenth Century Black Female Protagonists (Nydia Jeffers)
Subject Area
Afro-Hispanic Studies
Abstract
It is very rare to find a Black female voice represented in nineteenth century fiction in the first person. Black protagonists Ourika and Sibila contribute to Afro-Romance literature because they tell a common story of suffering rejection for marriage and motherhood in early colonial France and colonial Venezuela, respectively. The adopted daughter from Senegal, Ourika, is the first Black female protagonist in Europe in the French novella Ourika (1823) by Duchess Claire Duras (1777-1828). The domestic slave Sibila is the first Black female protagonist in Latin America in the short story “La Sibila de los Andes” (1840) by politician Fermín Toro (1807-1865).
These two narratives are exceptions within the French and the Venezuelan literature of the XIXth century because the protagonists are Black and virgin until death, as opposed to the more studied type of the “tragic Mulatta”, who is either a victim of rape, as in Félix Tanco y Bosmeniel’s “Petrona y Rosalía” (1837), or a seductress, as in Cirilo Villaverde’s Cecilia Valdés (1882). Ourika and Sibila provide a voice to the Black victims of a triple oppression of race, class and gender in the XIXth century. The paper will compare the French and the Venezuelan stories following the lead of the Feminist concept of “trauma” by Julia Kristeva and the Postcolonial Cultural concept of "Caliban" by Roberto Fernández Retamar.
Brief Bio Note
Nydia Rosanna Jeffers taught Spanish courses at Georgetown University, the University of Nebraska and community colleges until her tenure-track position now at Henderson State University. Her dissertation, article publications and conference presentations are about the black protagonist in poetry and narratives in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature.
Keywords
Venezuela Literature, French Literature, Black Female Protagonists, Nineteenth Century Narratives, Race, Class, Gender
Location
Room 210
Presentation Year
April 2018
Start Date
4-6-2018 4:05 PM
Embargo
10-22-2017
Recommended Citation
Jeffers, Nydia, "Ourika and Sibila of the Andes: two Nineteenth Century Black Female Protagonists" (2018). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 48.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2018/2018/48
Ourika and Sibila of the Andes: two Nineteenth Century Black Female Protagonists
Room 210
It is very rare to find a Black female voice represented in nineteenth century fiction in the first person. Black protagonists Ourika and Sibila contribute to Afro-Romance literature because they tell a common story of suffering rejection for marriage and motherhood in early colonial France and colonial Venezuela, respectively. The adopted daughter from Senegal, Ourika, is the first Black female protagonist in Europe in the French novella Ourika (1823) by Duchess Claire Duras (1777-1828). The domestic slave Sibila is the first Black female protagonist in Latin America in the short story “La Sibila de los Andes” (1840) by politician Fermín Toro (1807-1865).
These two narratives are exceptions within the French and the Venezuelan literature of the XIXth century because the protagonists are Black and virgin until death, as opposed to the more studied type of the “tragic Mulatta”, who is either a victim of rape, as in Félix Tanco y Bosmeniel’s “Petrona y Rosalía” (1837), or a seductress, as in Cirilo Villaverde’s Cecilia Valdés (1882). Ourika and Sibila provide a voice to the Black victims of a triple oppression of race, class and gender in the XIXth century. The paper will compare the French and the Venezuelan stories following the lead of the Feminist concept of “trauma” by Julia Kristeva and the Postcolonial Cultural concept of "Caliban" by Roberto Fernández Retamar.
