Anglo American Tutorial Term 1

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 FEMINISMBELL 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 VOICECLAUDIA TATE 7. THE CHANGING SAME : GENERATIONAL CONNECTIONS AND BLACK WOMEN NOVELISTS- DEBORAH E MC.DOWELL 8. TONI MORRISON- INTERVIEW WITH KARIN L. BADT(1995) BIBLIOGRAPHYPRIMARY TEXTS:  TONI MORRISON- BELOVED

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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