Title: The Redemption of Irritation: The Irritation Feeling of the American Black Woman in Sing, Unburied, Sing

Abstract: Jesmyn Ward, an African American woman writer, presents a black woman named Leonie who suffers from severe psychological trauma and ugly feelings in Sing, Unburied, Sing. Trapped by one of these ugly feelings-“irritation”, Leonie is easily enraged by daily trifles, but seems to have lost her sensitivity to such matters of magnitude as racism and social justice. By employing the theory of “ugly feelings” and the thought of “becoming-literature”, this paper interprets Leonie’s “irritation” and comes to the conclusion that, deriving from “the American dilemma”, “irritation” is not only the mirror of the dilemma, but also the redemption of that dilemma. Besides, Ward takes in-depth thought into the ultimate way to solve “the American dilemma” in terms of returning to its origin and reconciling different interests within it.

Keywords: Sing, Unburied, Sing, irritation, the American dilemma, American black woman

Author: Lin Sun, Lecturer, School of English Studies, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; Xiaoling Wang, Professor, College for International Cooperative Programs, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.