FEMINIST VOICES IN GLORIA NAYLOR’S FICTION

Abstract

The thesis proposes to investigate the structures of oppression of women within their family and work roles as illustrated in the novels of Gloria Naylor. In comparison to historical or ethnographic accounts, fiction provides a very singular imaginative space from which to scrutinize the issues pertaining to the intertwined oppression of women within their family and work roles – in the context of Gloria Naylor, the perspective of race is also organically related with such evaluation. Historical or ethnographic modes of representation often provide snapshots of certain episodes in women’s lives. Consequently, issues are complicated by the compromises that simply have to be made to maintain relationships or work conditions. In clear cut juxtaposition to these modes, fiction allows for issues/ resistance to be intricately and calculatingly constructed in terms of metaphorical convolution, narrative resolution and ideological conquest. The workiness of realities is creatively bypassed to create an uncluttered space of liberation and truth. The novels of Gloria Naylor, the famous American novelist, thus become extremely significant in the context of the African- American/Black womanhood. Bell Hooks has remarked that the position of Black women is “unusual”. White women and Black men can be both oppressed and oppressors. White women suffer from sexist biases but racism allows them to discriminate against the Black people; whereas Black men have to suffer racist discrimination but their gender enables them to subjugate their women (Hooks 16). In her novels Naylor has portrayed the family and work roles in the lives of Black American women in different time zones. Recurrent themes in these novels are oppression of women, social stereotypes of gender, and the construction of femininity/masculinity. Her novels showcase the quintessence of women bonding and mothering of different generations. Known for her strong and admirable depiction of African-American women, Naylor has authored five novels; viz., The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1986), Mama Day (1988), Bailey’s Café (1992), and The Men of Brewster Place (1998). Her sixth book 1996 is a fictionalized memoir. It is a staggering depiction of how offensive incursion of privacy can prove to be traumatic and ruin one’s life. One can sense the presence of the author’s sensitivity to issues of racism and work-ethics in her memoir also, though the thesis focuses on Naylor’s five novels only.