Racism, Sexism and the Genesis of a “Womanish” Identity in Selected Novels by Alice Walker and Toni Morrison
Keywords:
Racism, Sexism, Black Womanhood, Womanism, Gender Roles, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye, Sula, The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of JoyAbstract
This article explores the genesis of a new meaning of black womanhood in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Sula and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy. The four novels examine how racism and sexism define black women’s gender roles, categorize their beauty and mutilate their sexuality. However, both Morrison and Walker witnessed the genesis of a “womanish” identity which is primarily based on woman’s strength, love, and survival. Alice Walker’s Womanism is adopted as the basic analytical method. As a literary movement, Womanism tries to give black women the voice of liberty, empowerment, and equality in order to fight both race and gender prejudice.
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References
- Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Vintage, 2005.
(All quotations are from this edition)
- Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. London: Vintage Books, 1999.
(All quotations are from this edition)
- Walker, Alice. Possessing the Secret of Joy. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
(All quotations are from this edition)
- Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harvest, 2003.
(All quotations are from this edition)
- McWhorter, Ladelle. Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America: A Genealogy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. p 318.
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Ibid xi.
- Phillips, Layli. The Womanist Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. p 128-9.
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Ibid xi.
- Ibid xii.
- Bambara, Toni Cade. ''On the Issue of Roles.'' The Black Woman: An Anthology. Ed. Bambara. New York: Washington Square Press, 2005. p133.
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1987.
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Phillips, Layli. The Womanist Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. p xxvii.
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Cori, Jasmin Lee. Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life. Ed. Da Capo Press. New York : Marlowe and Company, 2007. p 183
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. London: Phoenix, 2005. p xi.
- Bambara, Toni Cade. ''On the Issue of Roles.'' The Black Woman: An Anthology. Ed. Bambara. New York: Washington Square Press, 2005. p133.
- Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2000. p 157.
