Abstract:
This thesis will examine the novels The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and Homegoing by
Yaa Gyasi. It will analyse specifically the externalized performances of gender, black
womanhood in particular. The thesis determines externalised performance as the social
expectations of black women, and how they are perceived by members of their community,
as well as how the black female characters internalize or reject the concept of black
womanhood imposed on them. The methodological framework will look at concepts of
gender and blackness and combine these two to analyse the black female characters in these
novels.
