Black American Women Writers

Ques. Discuss the circumstances in which writing by black American women gained literary and cultural prominence in the last two decades and a half of the 20th century.What are the most dominant themes in their writings?Comment also on the stylistic innovations present in the writings of some of these writers.

The year 1970 proved to be a watershed moment in the history of black women's writing and their struggle for emancipation.Many black women had distanced/were distancing themselves from the Feminist movement of the 60's.These women made their presence felt by drawing people's attention to their concerns which were different from those of white women.The black women's writing,which was revived in the 1970's,was the vehicle through which the black women voiced their concerns.The year saw the re-publication of Zora Neale Hurston's collection of black American folklore titled "Mules and Men".The year is also important because present day prominent black women writers-Toni Morrison and Alice Walker came up with their first novels.Margaret Walker and Maya Angelou were amongst the other prominent black women to have emerged around this time.

The emergence of black women writers on the American literary scene was not a sudden or a fortuitous event.Their bursting on to the scene was a result of the new found consciousness of black American women.They were increasingly becoming conscious of the racist and patriarchal oppression that they were being subjected to in America.By the 1970's the black women had the knowledge that both-The Civil Rights Movement and The Feminist Movement were neglecting the issues relating to black women.Despite being active participants in both the move...

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...e owner any right to her children.Through the act of killing,Sethe primarily asserts her children's and her own dignity as a human being.Sethe realizes that her children's and her own self-respect lies in wresting her agency from the slave owner.

Now to conclude the discussion one can say that the the texts by black American women became the grounds where these women fought oppression by challenging the ideas of the mainstream society.Thus the movement launched by black women did not only hold political and literary significance.The movement also had the potential to bring about a social change for the better.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.Hooks,Bell.Ain't I a Woman-Black Women and Feminism.

2.Carby,Hazel V.The Quicksands of Representation:Rethinking Black Cultural Politics.

3.Tate,Claudia.Black Women Authors:An Emerging Voice.