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Alice Walker

Alice Walker,Womanism,Black feminism, Africana womanism,The Color Purple (novel),The Color Purple (film),The Third Life of Grange Copeland,The Temple of My Familiar, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens,Clenora Hudson-Weems

Alice Walker is an American writer that is known for her contribution to African American stories that speak to the importance of Womanism and Black Feminism. Walker has written several novels and her contributions have served as inspirations for present day writing as well as theatre and higher education influences. Alice Walker`s literary works are revered around the world. Her books have shared the unclaimed stories of generations of Black Ladies. Walker`s most famously known for her book The Color Purple. Walker is known for unapologetically writing about African American history that speaks to the triumphs and victories of the people she gives expression to.

Womanism

Walker is credited for creating womanism in a short story called "Coming Apart" in 1979. Womanism is the social construct that acknowledges Black Women in feminist spaces and sometimes separately for rights that are unique to the Black Woman`s experience. Alice Walker is well known for the quote "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender." Walker`s literary works exude womanist views as the main characters in her books are Black Women that navigate American culture through triumphs and hardships.

Katie Geneva Cannon`s "Black Womanist Ethics" (1988) describes an evolving view of Womanism. Cannon describes womanism as a system that configures around rejection and circumstance that is not closed and fixed to only highlight past problems, but includes problems of the present and future. Cannon believes that Womanism is dedicated to addressing oppression and social justice.

Black Feminism and Africana Womanism

Black feminism and Africana womanism is relevant to Alice Walker`s creation of Womanism. Black feminism and Africana Womanism speaks to the uniqueness of the Black female experience. Similar to Womanism, these terms are used to articulate the gap that is in place through feminism and addresses concerns of Black Women that may be overshadowed in more general spaces. In Patricia Hill Collins` What`s In A Name? Womanism, Black Feminism and Beyond; she writes on the debate of whether the Black Woman`s point of view should be called Womanism or Black Feminism. Collins lists the four meanings of Womanist that Alice Walker initiated in, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Walker starts defining Womanism by stating that a womanist is a Black feminist of feminist of color. This section of feminism is purposed to display the sexist and racist struggles that are specific to Black Women. Africana Womanism was coined by Clenora Hudson-Weems in the 1980s. This specific type of Womanism related to women specifically from the African diaspora and the specific struggles that accompany that identity.

Womanist centered Books/Novels

Alice Walker is well known for her book The Color Purple but her other literary works deserve the same acclaim and she has been well recognized for providing literature that speaks to the life stories of so many American Black Women. Walker`s literary works have been cited in


 * The Third Life of Grange Copeland                                        https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/The-Third-Life-of-Grange-Copeland/9780156028363
 * Meridian                                                  https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/meridian/9780156028349
 * The Temple of My Familiar                                                             https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/the-temple-of-my-familiar/9780547480008
 * Possessing the Secret of Joy                                                         https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/possessing-the-secret-of-joy/9780151731527
 * By the Light of My Father`s Smile

Plays/Theatre

The Color Purple (musical)

Movies

The Color Purple

The Color Purple (film)