When Victims Become Victimizers. Abuse and Neglect in Sapphire’s The Kid

• Authors: Świetlicki Mateusz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In both of her novels, Sapphire depicts disadvantaged gifted children and adolescents. Precious, the illiterate protagonist of Push (1996), eventually starts to write poetry. In The Kid (2011) her son Abdul becomes a passionate dancer. Both protagonists are also victims of sexual abuse and social neglect. While they try to use their gifts as a way of coping with trauma, only Abdul grows up to be a victimizer. This essay shows that Sapphire challenges the stereotypical understanding of the child’s innocence. She also depicts social isolation of abused Black children, and, instead of condemning Abdul, makes her readers try to understand the causes of the rage, anger, and abusive behavior of a victim who becomes a victimizer.

Keywords

EN

adolescent; trauma; sexual abuse; homophobia; American fiction

• Publisher: Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT – Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe
• Journal: Filoteknos
• Year: 2020
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 324-333

Contributors

author

Świetlicki Mateusz

• University of Wrocław

References

• Bailey, B. 2013. The Vexed History of Children and Sex. – P. S. Fass (ed.), The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World. London and New York: Routledge.
• Brown, T.J. 2006. Welcome to the Terrordome: Exploring the Contradictions of a Hip-Hop Black Masculinity. – A. D. Mutua (ed.), Progressive Black Masculinities, New York-London: Routledge.
• Cross, G. 2004. The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children’s Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Franklin II, C W. 1994. Ain’t I a Man? The Efficacy of Black Masculinities for Men’s Studies in the 1990s. – The American Black Male: His Present Status and His Future R. G. Majors (ed.), J. G. Gordon (ed.), Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 271–283.
• Gibbs, J.T. 1994. Anger in Young Black Males: Victims or Victimizers? – The American Black Male: His Present Status and His Future. R. G. Majors (ed.), J. G. Gordon (ed.), Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 127–143.
• Harris, I. 2019. ‘Everything to Do With the Fact That They Are Black Women., https://www. elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a25756816/r-kelly-lifetime-documentary-dream-hampton-interview/ (03.01.2019).
• Hill-Collins, P. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, New York: Routledge.
• Hill-Collins, P. 2005. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism. New York: Routledge.
• hooks, b. 2004. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge.
• Kearney, C. 2011. Sapphire’s „The Kid” won’t get Hollywood treatment, http://www.reuters. com/article/us-books-sapphire-idUSTRE76D2QN20110714 (14.07.2011).
• Kincaid, J.1998. Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Kokkola, L. 2012. Monstrous Bodies: Sapphire’s Writing of the Adolescent Body. – M. Hinton, M. Nikolajeva, eds., The Emergent Adult: Adolescent Literature and Culture, London: Ashgate, 93–110.
• Kokkola, L. 2013. Learning to Read Politically: Narratives of Hope and Narratives of Despair in Push by Sapphire. – Cambridge Journal of Education, DOI:10.1080/030576 4X.2013.792784.
• Majors, R., R. Tyler, B. Peden, R. Hall. 1994. Cool Pose: A Symbolic Mechanisms for Masculine Role Enactment and Coping by Black Males. – The American Black Male: His Present Status and His Future R. G. Majors (ed.), J. G. Gordon (ed.), Chicago: Nelson- Hall, 245–270.
• Natov, R., 2018. The Courage to Imagine. The Child Hero in Children’s Literature. London- New York: Bloomsbury.
• Morrison, T. 1999. The Bluest Eye. London: Vintage Books.
• Pappas, C. 2007. “You Hafta Push”: Using Sapphire’s Novel to Teach Introduction to American Government. Journal of Political Science Education, 3, 39–50.
• Patton, M. Q. 1990. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Richards, G. 2007. Lovers and Beloveds: Sexual Otherness in Southern Fiction 1936–1961. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
• Rose, T. 2004. Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy. New York: Picador.
• Sapphire. 1997. Push. New York: Vintage Books.
• Sapphire. 2011. The Kid. London: Hamish Hamilton.
• Smith, B. 1993. Homophobia: Why Bring It Up?. – H. Abelove (ed.), M. A. Barale (ed.), D. Halperin (ed.), The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, New York: Routledge.
• Stapleton, L. 2004. Toward a New Learning System: A Freirean Reading of Sapphire’s Push. – Women’s Studies Quarterly 32, 213–223.
• Stockton, K. B. 2009. The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Surviving R. Kelly. 2019. Produced by A. Brandin
• Thompson, M. 2006. Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Motherhood. – Genders OnLine Journal 43, www.genders.org/g43/g43_mary-thompson.html
• Tosene, J. E.2011. In The Traces of Our Memory: The Influence of Given Names in Life. London: Karnac Books.
• White, E. F. 2001. Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.23817/filotek.10-22