Black Feminist Writers and the Peculiarities ...

Black Feminist Writers and the Peculiarities of the Formation of Black Woman’s Identity

Author Name : Nalli Raju

ABSTRACT

The emergence of feminist views in 1970s highlighted the essence of African American women’s literature, which was not regarded as noteworthy before. African –American women’s literary tradition is marked by common themes such as racial and gender inequality, fate and condition of black male and female writer, the peculiarities of the formation of black woman’s identity , her search for selfhood, her position and roles in the a multicultural society, and black woman’s consciousness. In the 1970s women began to openly express their experience as both suppressed women and members of minority group. The black women writers of the period-Glorya Naylor, Toni Cade Bambara, Shirley Anne Williams, Gayl Jones explored the issues of their problematic position and struggle for liberation in a racial and mainstream culture. Their works marked a significant shift in African American literature. As Cathrine R.Stimpson states, black women writers also claimed for rejection of male power over women, the deconstruction of dominant images of black women, and the need for women to construct their own experience , history and identity. The most representative black female writers of recent periods include Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou who continue such central themes in African –American women’s literary tradition as female friendship, search for and discovery of identity and community, racial oppression and sexual violence , the importance of ancestry.

Key Words: Identity, Culture, Literature, etc.,