A classic of Black literature and an uncompromising mirror held up to the twentieth-century African American experience, Gayl Jones’ blistering novel centres on blues singer Ursa and the demons of both her past and present. Written in starkly realistic prose, this rediscovered masterpiece is pivotal to any understanding of race and gender in modern society.
Upon publication in 1975, Corregidora was hailed as a masterpiece, winning acclaim from writers including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and John Updike. Exploring themes such as race, sexuality and the long repercussions of slavery, this powerful novel paved the way for Beloved and The Colour Purple. Now, this lost classic is published for a new generation of readers.
Blues singer Ursa is consumed by her hatred of Corregidora, the nineteenth-century slave master who fathered both her mother and grandmother. Charged with 'making generations' to bear witness to the abuse embodied in the family name, Ursa Corregidora finds herself unable to keep alive this legacy when she is made sterile in a violent fight with her husband. Haunted by the ghosts of a Brazilian plantation, pained by a present of lovelessness and despair, Ursa slowly and firmly strikes her own terms with womanhood.
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Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349012148
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 166 g
Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 18 mm
Gayl Jones's first novel, Corregidora (1975), was both shocking and ground-breaking in its probing of the psychological legacy of slavery and sexual ownership through the life of a Kentucky blues singer . . . it predated Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Toni Morrison's Beloved, revealing an unfinished emancipation and the power of historical memory to shape lives. It also marked a shift in African-American literature that made women, and relationships between black people, central - Guardian
An American writer with a powerful sense of vital inheritance, of history in the blood - New Yorker
No novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this
She writes beautifully, painfully, furiously and righteously about violence and desire - Daisy Buchanan, i paper
A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers
Corregidora is the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women . . . it dares to confront the absolute terror which lives at the heart of love
Corregidora's survey of trauma and overcoming has become even better and more relevant with the passage of time. It remains an indispensable point of entry into the tradition of African American writing that Gayl Jones reshaped and enriched
Corregidora examines how the trauma of slavery is imprinted on the black female body and passed down from generation to generation. Gayl Jones's work remains essential and vital; I will be rereading her catalog for the rest of my life - Nylon magazine
A breathtaking novel that stands as one of the most important twentieth century works of African American literature. Jones captures the web of inheritances that shaped the lives of Black women in slavery and freedom, from trauma to resilience, and from flesh to spirit. Corregidora is deeply affecting and endures in the hearts and minds of readers
The book is plotted like a beautiful, tear-filled song - Sheila Heti, Week
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