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African-American literature has emerged as a dynamic and versatile body of

literature in contemporary world literature. It is the literature written by Americans of

African descent, and has come to be a defining force in American writing. As an

important part of American literature and culture, its great diversity has been recognized

globally. The issue of race continuously remains central in African-American writing.

Being a part of African-American literature, African-American women are as significant

as that of black male writers. Black women writers also played a very significant role in

the construction of a black cultural identity. They consider it their prime duty and

responsibility to raise social consciousness and promote change in their society and try

their best to create a space which is otherwise denied to them. Emphasizing on the fact

that black women are victims of both racial and gender oppression, their basic goal is to

raise consciousness among black women of this double oppression. The word

“black” was often equated with black men and the word “woman” with white women. As

a result, black women were taken as an invisible group whose existence and needs were

ignored.

African-American literature has produced a great number of black women writers

like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Gloria Naylor, and many

others. In their works, these black female writers have given expression to the black

female experience. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1983, Alice Walker has

risen to a position of prominence. She is acclaimed by The Times as “the brightest star in

a galaxy of black women writers.” While working as a contributing editor of Ms.

Magazine, she has spoken out on a variety of women’s issues and encouraged and

influenced several black women writers. Portraying women’s oppression and advocating
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female bonding, her fiction focuses on African-American women who struggle to achieve

independent identities beyond male domination.

Walker is simultaneously a feminist and a supporter of human rights and values,

not only for African-Americans but also for oppressed minorities anywhere in the world.

Her fiction essentially centres around the struggles and oppression that African-American

women endured and focuses on the evolution of female wholeness, the development of

female identity and solidarity. What makes her a champion of black feminist cause is her

description of pain and victimization of the black female characters in her fiction. Henry

Louis Gates, Walker’s renowned critic talks about her literary achievements in the

preface to Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present and comments:

Walker’s achievement as a writer is characterized by an astonishing

versatility. She is equally at home with poetry and fiction . . . it is worth

remembering her first appearance in book form was as a poet . . . Indeed

as an essayist alone she would be a noteworthy presence in American

letters. And of course, the rigorous sensibility that she designates

“womanism” in her expository prose, one that seeks to transcend the

failing she decries in some mainstream feminisms, suffuses her larger

oeuvre as well. (x)

Walker’s fiction mainly deals with feminist concerns like friendship between

women, female self-realization, family relationships, etc. Her fiction is concerned with

displaced and dispossessed people. Exploring the evils of racism and sexism, her fiction

exposes male brutalities, female sexual abuse, incest and many other things. Walker’s
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fiction does not focus much on racial violence occurring among strangers but the

violence among family members and friends.

In spite of the ample critical attention that Alice Walker’s works (in particular The

Color Purple) have received, it is surprising that the theme of female solidarity has not

been dealt with so far. It is also surprising to see that her first short story collection, In

Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women, a collection of thirteen stories, has, as a

whole, met the same fate. In particular, the theme of struggle and victimization of women

has almost remained unexplored. The present dissertation attempts to turn critical and

research oriented attention to the exploration of the aforementioned themes alongside the

examination of the major theme which is the analysis of the Black Feminist Streak in the

fictional works of the author. This study is an attempt to look at The Color Purple and In

Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women which depict how black women are

victimized and delineate the struggle black women endure to achieve independence and

freedom from racism and sexism through female solidarity and sisterhood. This study

also attempts to show how race intersects with gender in creating a black women’s

experience.

Over the years, Alice walker has received a lot of critical attention. A number of

books have been written on her and most of them focus on the themes of racism, sexism,

class oppression, struggle and her place in contemporary Afro-American literature.

Donna Haisty Winchell’s Alice Walker (1992) is one of the first books devoted entirely to

Alice Walker. This book explores her life and work. Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives

Past and Present (1993), edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and K. Anthony Appiah, is an

excellent collection of scholarly articles and reviews of Walker’s novels and serves as a
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good introduction to Walker’s fictional works. Evelyn C White’s Alice Walker: A Life is

an invaluable contribution to our understanding of Alice Walker. White draws on

extensive interviews and exhaustive research and brings Walker’s life into light. Alice

Walker: A Critical Companion by Gerri Bates is one more significant work written on

Walker. The work gives a description of Walker’s life and deals with all the novels

written by her.

Another important book is Elliot Butler Evans’ Race, Gender and Desire:

Narrative Strategies in the Fiction of Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison and Alice

Walker (1989). In this book, an entire chapter has been devoted to Walker’s The Third

Life of Grange Copeland and The Color Purple. Ikenna Dieke’s Critical Essays on Alice

Walker (1999) is considered to be another pivotal work on her. Maria Lauret’s Alice

Walker (1999), Harold Bloom’s Alice Walker (2002), Caroline Lazo’s Alice Walker:

Freedom Fighter (2000), Mary Donnelly’s Alice Walker: The Color Purple and Other

Works (2009), Simcikova, Karla’s To Live fully Here and Now: The Healing Vision in the

works of Alice Walker (2007), are some other important works wherein Walker’s fictional

works have been appraised, evaluated and analyzed.

In addition to books, a number of articles have been written on her. Ross, Daniel

W in “Celie in the Looking Glass: The Desire for Selfhood in The Color

Purple” employs psychoanalytic methods to analyze Celie's delayed emotional growth

in The Color Purple and examines the catalysts that shape and encourage her progress

toward self-realization and self-acceptance. Wall, Wendy in “Lettered Bodies and

Corporeal Texts in The Color Purple. Studies in American Fiction” examines the

epistolary format of The Color Purple, arguing that the protagonist Celie becomes
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stronger by using writing as an outlet, yet hinders her emotional growth by creating

private discourses instead of verbalizing her fears and needs to others. Abbandonato,

Linda in the essay “A View from “Elsewhere”: Subversive Sexuality and the Rewriting

of the Heroine's Story in The Color Purple” explores Walker's denouncement of the

Caucasian, patriarchal order in The Color Purple by displaying Celie's claiming of an

identity and lesbian sexuality.

Alice Walker looks deep into the lives of black women and analyzes how they

deal with various kinds of oppression like poverty, rape, incest, genital mutilation, etc.

Amidst such aspects of oppression, she portrays how females express solidarity to help

each other in times of need and the struggles they undergo when victimized. The Color

Purple and In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women depict the oppression,

victimization, and struggles undergone by the black women and also the female bonding

formed by these women.

The present dissertation is divided into four chapters and has an “Introduction”

and a “Conclusion” also. The ‘Introduction” introduces Walker as an important African-

American contemporary writer and describes her as a black feminist writer dealing with

the themes of oppression, victimization, struggles and bonding of black female characters

in her fiction.

The first chapter titled “Emergence of Black Feminism: An Overview” traces the

development of Western feminism and Black feminism. Western feminists excluded

black women in their movement and neglected their contribution. With the result, black

women felt alienated from them as they were not presented in literature by both white

feminists and black male writers. The chapter makes an attempt to exhibit how black
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feminist movement emerged as a reaction against the mainstream feminist movement. It

focuses on the contribution of various black feminist writers.

The second chapter entitled “Alice Walker and Womanism” seeks to place

Walker in the literary tradition of black women’s writing. It draws a wide and broad life

sketch of Walker and her literary career and also explores her theory of womanism which

presents the issues of black women in American society, deals with the black women’s

struggle for survival and for the development of life. The chapter briefly introduces with

Walker’s works.

The third chapter entitled “Female Solidarity in The Color Purple” is an appraisal

of Walker’s portrayal of female victimization and promotion of female solidarity and

sisterhood. The novel depicts the story of Celie’s growth from an abused and silenced girl

to a woman of independence and liberation as she develops bonds with other women like,

Shug Avery, Sofia, Nettie, Squeak, and others to fight against sexism and economic

deprivation. The novel shows how Walker could perceive a woman loving another

woman spiritually, physically, and sexually. The chapter focuses on how through

solidarity, the women characters in the novel are able to achieve self-realization and

existence.

The fourth chapter of this dissertation entitled “Struggle and Victimization of

Women in In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women” deals with the heights of

cruelty and oppression black women are subjected to in their racist and sexist society.

The chapter focuses on the severe struggles that the black women endure when being

victimized by patriarchal dominance. Walker brings into focus the fact that all forms of
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love known to black women come with trouble and suffering and the effects of betrayal

and victimization on their psyche.

The “Conclusion” sums up the previous chapters and explains the significance of

the study. It reveals how Alice Walker has portrayed the true picture of African-

American women in her fiction and the problems faced by them in their society.