Maternal Loss and the Single Black Mother in Afro Caribbean Literature: An Analysis of Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber= الفقدان الأمومي والأم العازبة السوداء في الأدب الإفريقي الكاريبي: دراسة تحليلية لرواية سارق منتصف الليل للكاتبة نالو هوبكنسون

Abstract

This article aims to study the representation of maternal loss and the figure of the single black mother in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber. In order to help to define black motherhood, two relationships of black mothers-children are analyzed, in the twenty first century America, as follows: Tan Tan and her mother Ione, and Tan Tan and her baby boy Tubman. Black feminism is used as a theoretical framework to analyze the protagonist’s socio-economic status and her identity development. Consequently, motherhood becomes a site of resistance through Tan Tan who fights against the intersectional paradigm of sexism and racism.