Détails de l’article

Titre : Resilience and Survival in Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)

Auteur.e.s : Mariame WANE LY, Abdoulaye NDIAYE.

Résumé : This article explores the themes of resilience and survival in Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman published in 1971. It focuses on the psychological, social, and racial dimensions of endurance within the African American experience. Set in the context of systemic racism in the United States, the story highlights how characters navigate oppression, psychological violence, and social exclusion. It analyzes psychological and social resilience, exploring how characters maintain mental strength, dignity, and self-awareness despite discrimination, humiliation, and systemic marginalization. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s theory of internalized oppression (1963 and Carl Jung’s ‘collective consciousness’, the article argues that resilience emerges as a conscious refusal to internalize racial inferiority and as a strategy of emotional and intellectual resistance. The article also investigates resilience through family and community, emphasizing the role of kinship, solidarity, and shared cultural practices in sustaining survival. Through Edward Said’s theory of cultural identity and resistance, the study highlights how communal bonds function as counter-narratives to dominant structures of exclusion, reinforcing identity and collective memory. Finally, the article situates resilience within the broader framework of race and social injustice, examining how systemic racism, inequality, and institutional oppression shape communal bonds as counter-narratives to dominant structures of exclusion and reinforce identity and collective memory. Keywords : community, psychological resilience, race, survival, social injustice.

Numéro 2