Dews, CarlosRussell, ShannonClarke, Morgan2024-12-202024-12-202024Clarke, Morgan. "The Reconstructed Bildungsroman: Black Folklore and "Paired Characters" in Beloved and Swing Time". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2024.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14490/834Thesis (B.A. in English Literature)--John Cabot University, Fall 2024.Beloved by Toni Morrison and Swing Time by Zadie Smith are contemporary bildungsromane, that use African folklore/mythology and paired characters to contribute to the evolution of the genre, by representing the postcolonial experiences of Black women in the diaspora. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, the novels reconstruct the convention of the bildungsroman using African folklore/myth and paired characters. Beloved by Toni Morrison uses the myths of the Yoruba abiku and Igbo ogbanje and the African folk tradition of the trickster to characterize the antagonist, Beloved, and exemplify the protagonist’s, Sethe’s, internal struggle due to the traumas of slavery. Sethe’s paired character, Denver, works as a catalyst for Sethe’s stalled development. Swing Time by Zadie Smith uses the folk traditions of the Sene-Gambian kankurang and the Ghanaian Sankofa to work as catalysts and epiphanies for the unnamed protagonist, which structures her bildung, as well as represents her internal conflict. The paired character, Tracey, works as a force to reveal the protagonist’s complex identity conflict. The protagonists in these stories are unconventional because of their identities as Black women in the diaspora, however, through the reconstruction of the convention their bildungsroman becomes possible.v, 59 pagesenAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/BildungsromansAfrican American women in literatureFolklore in literaturePostcolonialism in literatureThesis