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1 1 Introduction African American Writing Has Become an Integral Part of American Literature Over the Twentieth Century. Apparen

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1 1 Introduction African American Writing Has Become an Integral Part of American Literature Over the Twentieth Century. Apparen 1 Introduction African American writing has become an integral part of American literature over the twentieth century. Apparently, the world of African American women writers with their immensely rich culture and history had been neglected and undervalued by many people and literary critics. As Bell Hooks points out the “writing […] [has] been virtually the sole terrain of men” (30). The works of Langston Hughes or Ralph Ellison, African American male writers, were highly acknowledged and discussed for their depiction of the hard lives of African Americans. Yet it was a portrayal from a male perspective and for many years, it served as the only one the reader was exposed to because of the missing female viewpoint. Nevertheless, there has been a significant change in this phenomenon. Angels Carabi in an interview with Gloria Naylor notices the explosion of African American women’s writing in the last three decades caused by the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements in the roaring and rebellious late 1960s (Interview with Carabi 112-13). Female authors such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor represent this growing literary tradition. What these authors have in common is that they were among the first ones to describe in their novels the real world and harsh conditions of African American women. The women have been portrayed in various situations and roles that have been typical for the African American culture and society. Moreover, the writers have uncovered many taboos and social issues that had been blindly overlooked by American society. These authors, by writing about African the American women’s experience, have helped to open the eyes of many people and, more importantly, 1 prepared the ground for discussions about the rights, possibilities and the future of African American people. In this thesis, I concentrate on one of the African American authors, Gloria Naylor, and her portrayal of African American women in three of her novels— The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Mama Day (1988) and Bailey’s Café (1992) . Firstly, I want to outline the characteristic features of Naylor’s writing, her background that has had an immense impact on her writing career, and the circumstances that has lead Naylor to write specifically about African American women. Secondly, the main aim of my thesis is to investigate the potential impact of some of the patterns of the African kinship system on the development of women’s roles in African American community—mainly on the development of the role of the othermother. This notion of the othermother’s role will be then applied to Naylor’s protagonists of her novels— Mattie Michael, Eve and Miranda Day who share many similarities, but who also differ in many ways. Among the most important characteristic features they have in common are their dysfunctional family backgrounds that have had an impact on the development of their personalities; their motherless position; their strong empathy for women in the community and lastly, their defence of the weak and sick women that find themselves in critical situations. On the other hand, the protagonists contrast in their personalities and in the ways they perceive the world. Nevertheless, they each fulfil various roles that are closely interconnected and altered according to women’s needs. This thesis thus demonstrates the othermothers’ roles as healers and as the ancestral figures that later become an important and essential element in the women’s recovery. Some of the women suffer from the physical sickness caused either by loss of their children or conversely, by their desire to have them. Most importantly, all the women suffer from 2 the loss of their real female identity that has disappeared during the dreadful experiences of male oppression and physical or psychological abuse over the years. I have consulted various sources that deal with African and African American traditions, history and culture. The compilation of the interviews with Gloria Naylor has helped me to understand her way of writing and has been a fruitful source of information about African American culture. Furthermore, sociological and anthropological surveys and essays on African and African American family systems have been employed in order to support my thesis concerning othermothers, their role and influence in African American communities. A comparative approach that examines the similarities and differences between the three protagonists will be applied in this thesis. Moreover, my aim is to show the necessity, importance and influence of othermothers on African American women and the female community. 1.1 Gloria Naylor and Her Writing In her fiction, Gloria Naylor depicts African American culture and community in its full diversity. She emphasizes the importance of the female world, its vast historical and cultural richness. One of Naylor’s leading and recurring themes is the community of women with their lives and stories. In interviews with William Goldstein and later with Toni Morrison, who greatly inspired Naylor in her beginnings, Naylor explains her desire and reasons for writing especially about African American women: “[…] what I wanted to see, with all my background in literature, […] were reflections of me and my existence and experience” (Interview with Goldstein 4). Naylor further claims that her “emotional energy was spent creating a woman’s world, telling her side of it because I knew it hadn’t been done enough in literature” (Interview with Morrison 23). Naylor 3 wants to accentuate not only female features, but also the hardships women have been exposed to. Naylor has been influenced by her African American cultural heritage and by the way she was brought up in the North by her family. In an interview with Kay Bonetti, Naylor reveals her family background. Naylor was born in New York but her parents come from the South where she was also conceived (Interview with Bonetti 42). Naylor talks about the importance of the family and its tradition: “Our sense of family—how you’re brought up to think about the family and the importance of it— well, it’s from the South. […] Our foods were from the South and our codes of behaviour as well” (Interview with Bonetti 42). She grew up in a two-parent household, surrounded by her grandparents, uncles and her aunts. Such a close contact with her extended family has had a great impact on Naylor. Naylor herself admits: “I wanted to immortalize the spirit I saw in my grandmother, my great aunt and my mum” (Interview with Goldstein 6). Having experienced traditional African American heritage that is usually passed on to children from their parents, Naylor passes this knowledge of her cultural heritage on to her readers. Gloria Naylor has written so far six novels, out of which the first four the Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, Mama Day and Bailey’s Café create 1 a quartet. The books in this quartet are closely interconnected through characters that shortly appear in one novel and later become one of the leading characters in another novel. Each novel gives a little hint about what will happen next. Naylor’s writing is sometimes like a puzzle or a detective story that the reader has to slowly uncover. In contrast with some other African American authors who compare the white community to the black one, Naylor concentrates on describing mostly the contemporary black community. In her interview with Virginia Fowler Naylor admits that she is “very 4 centered on the black community” (123) and “want[s] to present [its] positive images […] to as many people in America and the world as possible” (133). The time span of the narration varies from the fifties up to the present. She sees that there are many important issues within the black community that have not been talked about and need people’s attention. Naylor’s primary focus is on female characters and their various roles in the women’s community. Naylor often creates one female character that stands out and becomes the central link in the community. Most of her pivotal female characters are full of understanding, compassion and wisdom acquired through their wide experience. Moreover, these women are connected to each other through female unity and through their sense of motherhood and nurturing. Many important questions arise— where does this notion of unity and nurturing come from? Why do these women share the same understanding and perception of their lives? What different roles do women usually have within their family and community? To find the answers to these questions, it is helpful to look at some traditional African kinship patterns that were transferred to the African American family. 1.2 Women’s Role in the African and African American Kinship System Many scholars such as Herbert J. Foster, N. Sudarkasa and Sheila M. Littlejohn- Blake and Carol Anderson Darling have investigated the structure of the African American family and its functioning within the African American community. The results, based on previous investigation of African family organization, have revealed the immense influence of African family patterns on the contemporary African American family system (Foster 201). One has to realize that the African continent has 5 rich and diverse culture, therefore the term “ African pattern” stands as a general expression for all the different African cultures and not only for specific one. One of the traditional African features brought to the American land by African slaves 2 was the kinship system. In his article, “The African American Family in Crisis,” Henry A. Rhodes condenses Joanna and Elmer Martins’ theses about African family tradition. In the African kinship system, as the Martins state, one of the most important features was the helping tradition. The basis that helped in developing the helping tradition was among other things the social class cooperation, mutual aid and fictive kinship (Rhodes).
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