CONTEMPORARY VISIONS OF LOVE IN JACQUELINE WOODSON’S RED AT THE BONE

Abstract

Jacqueline Woodson‘s latest novel, Red at the Bone, unveils pressing issues concerning the contemporary African American experience. Through sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming-of-age party, the author meditates on themes such as teenage pregnancy, sexuality, queerness, urban life, familial relations, class division, history, and education. Woodson’s mastery in constructing the narrative situates the story at the border of prose and poetry; thus, the immediacy of the problems transgresses the limitation of genre. The current paper shall attempt to investigate the various manifestations of love that affect the characters’ personal growth, their agency and motivations in the new century.