Corregidora | Corregidora

At a glance:

Author: Gayl Jones
First Published: 1975
Type of Work: Novel
Type of Plot: Psychological realism
Time of Work: 1947-1969
Setting: Lexington, Bracktown, and Versailles, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Brazil
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, 1960’s, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, South or Southerners, Slavery or slaves, Marriage, 1940’s, Midwest, Ohio, Incest, Rape, Victims, Women’s issues, Oppression, Accidents, Brazil or Brazilians, Divorce, Duty, Infertility, Singing or singers
Locales: Brazil, Cincinnati, OH, Lexington, KY, Versailles, KY

Ursa Corregidora, the narrator, a twenty- five-year-old blues singer at Happy’s Café in a small town in central Kentucky. She is a beautiful, light-skinned black woman. Ursa must undergo a hysterectomy as a result of injuries sustained when her drunken husband pushed her down some steps; she was pregnant at the time. Her consequent inability to bear children ineffably traumatizes her: It makes her feel like less of a woman and also contributes to her sense of guilt that she is somehow failing the generations of women who were her ancestors, because the...

Corregidora | Corregidora

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

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