Field Guide to The Void

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This thesis will explore the role of the Void within Black and African American literature, specifically as they relate to ideas of memory, history, and ancestry. The three primary texts of this work each provide a space to examine different kinds of voids within Black life: </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jazz</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by Toni Morrison focuses on emotional voids and the effects they have on relationships and lives, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">I, Tituba</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by Maryse Cond&eacute; explores memory/historical voids and what can be done to attempt to repair them. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">These kinds of voids contain multitudes, however there remains the question of what can be done to heal these voids and the role that literature holds in this process. Overall my analysis of these literary works will show how these authors work to close these historical and present day voids without becoming beholden to the history from which they come. The work also includes a personal engagement with the Void through poetic work and engagement with the&nbsp;<em>Cardinal&nbsp;</em>by Tyree Daye and&nbsp;<em>Concentrate</em> by Courtney Faye Taylor.</span>