ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE

Discuss the circumstances in which writings by Black

American women gained literary and political prominence in
the 20th century. What adverse social conditions were Black
women writers responding to in their writings? What are the
most dominant themes in their writings? Comment also on the
stylistic inventions present in the writings of these writers.

The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed an upsurge

of social and political consciousness among Black American
women. This engendered the production of numerous
significant literary works by persons of this long marginalized
social group.
Though the first wave of social consciousness in Black
American women commenced in the nineteenth century, it was
only in the twentieth century that the writers began to confront
the dual mode of oppression that they were subject to-by the
virtue of their race as well as by the virtue of their gender.
An article titled ‘Black Women Novelists: New Generation
Raises Provocative Issues’(1) in the November, 1984 edition of
Ebony, a monthly magazine which since its inception has
addressed the needs of the African-American market, discusses
the growing importance of Black woman novelists in the
literary domain. The two principal Black women novelists of
this time were Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. Walker, for her
work ‘ The Color Purple’ received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction, while Toni Morrison, for her novels such as ‘ The
Bluest Eye’, ‘Tar Baby’, ‘Song of Solomon’ and ‘Beloved’ won
the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1993, thereby becoming the first Black woman recipient of the
same.
It is however crucial to comprehend the social conditions in
which these works were formulated. Though the radical
feminist movements of the twentieth century contributed to
this growing consciousness, it was largely shaped by
sensibilities the Black American female existence.
Bell Hooks, in her work, ‘Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and
Feminism’(2 ), observes that in the contemporary era ,
African-American women were confronted with the choice
between a Black movement which served the interests of Black
males and a feminist movement which largely suited the
interests of white women. It is when they were faced with these
crossroads that the movement to carve out a niche entirely for
themselves was conceptualized.
The rise in Black consciousness did not necessarily mean a
manifold increase in literature produced by African-American
women. In fact, the bulk of the Black writings of this time
continued to be written by the men of the community, and this
was laden with racist and sexist presumptions. Bell Hooks
contests the attempt made by white, as well as black
intellectuals to construct Black writings as a uniform,
homogeneous category, which it is indeed not. The
Introduction(3) to Hooks’ work makes an incisive insight as
she remarks that very often works on Black women are written
by their white counterparts-‘ Gerda Lerner, a white woman
born in Austria, edited ‘Black woman born in White America,
A Documentary History’ and received a generous grant to her
scholarship. While I think the collection is an important work,
it is significant that in our society white women are given grant
money to do research on black women but I can find no
instance where black women have received funds to research
white woman’s history’.
It is important to note that though race has often been viewed
as the only cause for the oppression of Black American women,
it is only in the recent times that gender oppression too has
been viewed as a reason for their status of deprivation. Black
men have a stake in maintaining a social status quo for
patriarchy enables them to occupy a position of hegemonic
dominance.
Yet another obstacle in the process of absolute emancipation of
the Black woman was the myth of matriarchy which was
perpetuated by both Blacks and Whites. Bell Hooks in her
essay ‘Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood’
observes-‘The myth of the black matriarchy helped to further
perpetuate the image black women as masculinized,
domineering, amazonic creatures. The Black female was
depicted by whites as an Amazon because they saw her ability
to endure hardships no “ lady” was supposedly capable of
enduring as a sign that she possessed an animalistic subhuman
strength’.(4)
Black women have often been accused of apathy in the context
of their involvement in feminist social and political movements.
In the essay ‘Racism and Feminism’, Bell Hooks remarks ‘ It is
often assumed that all black women are simply not interested
in women’s liberation…yet a Lewis Harris Virginia Slims poll
conducted in 1972 revealed that sixty two percent of black
women supported efforts to change woman’s status in society
as compared to forty five percent of white women…’(5). The
findings of such a survey show the presence of an impending
revolution and desire for change within the community of
African-American women.
Black women writers of this time also contested the derogatory
manner in which popular culture and mass media assigned to
Black women two extremely unattractive caricatures- that of
the overbearing mother or mammy figure or that of the
promiscuous young woman with dubious morals. Hooks
says-‘A recent film with another image of black womanhood
was Remember My Name, a movie that was glorifying the
toughness of today’s “ liberated white woman”. Significantly a
measure of her toughness is that she is able to beat and
brutalize a black woman who just happens to have a white
boyfriend’(4).
The phenomenon of Harlem Resistance, though revolutionary
in many ways, did not provide Black women ample scope to
break the shackles of social restrictions. Black women authors
often did not get the chance to be selective of their target
audience. Their works were subjected to typified and bound by
commercial, not aesthetic ideals. There was also a continuous
tendency to anthologize their works, in an attempt to trivialize
them.
There are however certain key motifs which are common to the
works of nearly all Black women authors. The central
character is a girl or a woman who is a victim of the inhuman
conditions of slavery. The experiences thus narrated are either
autobiographical or reflections of the collective experience of
violence of all Black women. Often, starkly realistic portrayals
of a Black woman’s existence are juxtaposed with depictions
of the supernatural or the mythic. A deliberate attempt is
made at destabilizing linear time in order to come to terms
with the horrific history of slavery.
Yet another paradox to be seen in the works of Black women
writers is the fact that though intensely personal, the accounts
of violence that are presented are curiously objective and often
animal imagery is used to bring about a dehumanizing effect.
Furthermore, the woman protagonist though significantly
individualistic, is not unrealistic in her triumphs. Claudia Tate,
in her essay ‘ Black Women Authors: An Emerging Voice’,
remarks-‘ Black women writers also acknowledge their
character’s defeat- not for the purpose of generating either a
sense of inferiority or the appearance of chronic victimization
in their readers , but to ensure that the readers learn to
appreciate both the circumstances leading to each character’s
fate and society’s complicity in it.’(6)
It is significant that any subscription to fatalism is
comprehensively rejected by these authors and the
protagonists are not merely victim figures who evoke pathos
but are potential agents of change.
Sethe’s murder of her daughter in Toni Morrison’ Beloved and
Granger’s murder of his own son in Alice Walker’s The Third
Life of Grange Copeland are incidents which are narrated from
a completely amoral perspective.
Conceptualization of identity is a key theme in the writings of
African-American women. Selfhood and identity are
contentious ideas for Black women owing to the complete
denial of civil, social and personal liberty that they were
subject to. In Morrison’s novel, Denver’s identity is made
concrete once she moves out of House No.124, and establishes
camaraderie with the others of the community, while Sethe
acquires an identity only when she comes to terms with the
extreme violence of her past and the ghost Beloved is quite
literally and metaphorically exorcised. Closely related to the
idea of the Black woman’s identity is the symbolic
emasculation of the Black man which was caused by the long
history of domination by the Whites, coupled with a show of
complete individualism by the Black woman. The character Of
Paul D and his desire to assume the role of a traditional
patriarch and the pitiful attempts made by him to ward off the
ghost of Beloved are instances which may be alluded to in
order to substantiate this argument. Morrison shows the
ability of Sethe’s family to flourish even in the absence of a
man, thereby challenging the patriarchal filial structure. Paul
D’s concluding words to Sethe-“ You are your best thing”,
make a radical feminist statement about a woman’s ability for
independent existence.
Motherhood too can be seen as a recurrent motif. It often
alludes to the estrangement of children from their mothers
during the era of slavery. Black intellectuals have also
suggested that though the bonds of motherhood, women can
fortify their social and filial importance. The motif could also
be said to signify the ability of the Black woman to suffer,
sacrifice and nurture.
Numerous stylistic inventions can also be seen in these works of
literature. Toni Morrison’s work Beloved cannot qualify as a
work of magical realism merely because of the presence of the
supernatural. Rather, it has been used to great effect to
intensify the representation of a past marked by horrific
violence which continues to haunt the members of the Black
community.
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is written in the epistolary
mode. Walker however departs from the usual mode of Black
writing, as is observed by Deborah E Mc.Dowell in ‘ The
Changing Same: Generational Connections and Black Women
Novelists’. She says-‘ Except for an occasional reference to
Macon, Memphis and the World War, the world is shut out.
Instead, like epistolary novels generally , The Color Purple
emphasizes the psychological development of character’.(7)
Harriet Ann Jacobs in her work Incidents In The Life Of A
Slave Girl, presents an autobiographical account by exploring
the psyche of the Black girl rather than merely making an
extensive comment about social and historical realities.
The Black woman writers bring about a modification in the
archetypal bildungsroman. The geographical location of the
protagonist seldom changes during the course of the narrative.
The “traveling” or the “adventure” is either set in a single
location or takes place at a metaphoric level.
Thus, the rise of African-American women’s writings in the
latter half of the twentieth century may be seen as a movement
which brought about crucial and lasting changes in both public
as well as private spheres of Black women’s existence. The
radical changes that these writers dreamt of can well be
summarized in the words of Toni Morrison in a 1995
interview by Karin L. Badt -“ Tar Baby is also a name[…]that
white people call black children, black girls, as I recall. At one
time a tar pit was a holy place, because tar was used to build
things. It held together things like Moses’ little boat and
pyramids. For me, the tar baby came to mean the Black
woman who can hold things together.”(8)

FOOTNOTES:

1. BLACK WOMEN NOVELISTS:GENERATION RAISES

PROVOCATIVE ISSUES-EBONY, NOVEMBER, 1984

2. AIN’T I A WOMAN:BLACK WOMEN AND FEMINISM-

BELL HOOKS

3.RACISM AND FEMINISM-BELL HOOKS

4. INTRODUCTION, AIN’T I A WOMAN:BLACK WOMEN

AND FEMINISM-BELL HOOKS

5. CONTINUED DEVALUATION OF BLACK

WOMANHOOD-BELL HOOKS

6. BLACK WOMEN AUTHORS:AN EMERGING VOICE-

CLAUDIA TATE

7. THE CHANGING SAME

: GENERATIONAL CONNECTIONS AND BLACK
WOMEN NOVELISTS- DEBORAH E MC.DOWELL

8. TONI MORRISON- INTERVIEW WITH KARIN L.

BADT(1995)

BIBLIOGRAPHY-

PRIMARY TEXTS:
 TONI MORRISON- BELOVED
 HARRIET A.JACOB-INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A
SLAV GIRL(ELECTRONIC EDITION)-
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN
SOUTH(http://docsouth.unc.edu.in/index.html)
 ALICE WALKER-THE COLOR
PURPLE(ELECTRONIC EDITION)-DOCUMENTING
THE AMERICAN
SOUTH(http://docsouth.unc.edu.in/index.html)

OTHER SOURCES:
• BELL HOOKS- AIN’T I A WOMAN:BLACK WOMEN
AND FEMINISM
• ELLEN WILLIS-SISTERS UNDER THE SKIN?
CONFRONTING RACE AND SEX
• HAZEL B. CARBY- THE QUICK SANDS OF
REPRESENTATION:RETHINKING BLACK
CULTURE AND POLITICS
• DEBORAH E. MC.DOWELL-THE CHANGING
“SAME”:GENERATIONAL CONNECTIONS AND
THE BLACK WOMAN NOVELIST
• MAE GWENDOLINE HENDERSON-SPEAKING IN
TONGUES:DIALOGICS, DIALECTICS, AND THE
BLACK WOMAN WRITERS’ LITERARY
TRADITION
• TONI MORRISON-INTERVIEW WITH KARIN L.
BADT(1995)

SRIMAYEE BASU
B.A(HONS)ENGLISH-3RD YEAR
ROLL NO- 749