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Over the years, African American literature has become an important part of the literary tradition of the United States. With this boom of popularity it is important to move beyond binary classifications to study these works as boundaries are being challenged and rewritten. This book, therefore, provides a hybrid discussion about Toni Morrison´s Sula and A Mercy focusing on the contradictory aspects of women bonds. It is suggested that such bonds are not simply determined by biological factors or limited to black women, as motherhood and sisterhood help the characters shape their own subjectivities and struggle for empowerment. However, the alteration of the ethics of care causes many of these women bonds to rupture as the characters resort to unconventional actions to survive in a racist and sexist society. Thus, this book provides an alternative vision of women bonds and the ethics of care, in which the women characters cannot be judged according to essentialist paradigms of good and bad.

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Natália Fontes-Oliveira has a Master´s Degree in Literary Studies from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She has an undergraduate major in Letters: Languages and Literatures, at the same university. Currently she is a PhD student in Comparative Literature at Purdue University.

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