The Fragmented Female Body and Identity: The Postmodern, Feminist, and Multiethnic Writings of Toni Morrison, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Phyllis Alesia Perry, Gayl Jones, Emma Perez, Paula Gunn A

June (English literature and criticism, Paine College, Atlanta, Georgia) explores how fragmentation has defined women's position in the US, and how recent, multi-ethnic American women authors have embraced a disjointed postmodern writing style both to reflect and to resist their historical state of fragmentation. She discusses maternal healing in Morrison's Beloved and Cha's Dictee, reliving African matrilineage in Perry's Stigmata and Jones' Corregidora, childhood scars and women's love in Perez's Gulf of Dreams and Allen's The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, and chaos and the absence of female bonds in Acker's works. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Pamela B. June received her Ph.D. in English literature and criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she has held teaching posts. She is Assistant Professor at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. She has published and presented papers on multiethnic women’s fiction.