On Alice Walker's Black Female Consciousness In Her Works

Alice Walker is a black woman writer of distinguishing quality who has been very influential in the contemporary literary world of America. She has ever involved herself in the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Liberation Movement; furthermore, she has acted as the editor of Ms Magazine. The subjects of sexism and racism are included in her works. We can see her distinct black female consciousness in her novel The Color Purple, Meridian and so on. Walker's black female consciousness is mainly embodied in the two aspects. One is the black feminist ideology in her works; the other is her construction of the black female aesthetics in artistic forms. The black feminist ideology in her works mainly includes the following points. Firstly, she shows concern for the existential state of the black women. She not only discloses the hard and miserable existence of the black women who suffer from the sexual, racial and class oppression but also pays close attention to the existence of the Third-World black women, criticizing harshly the tradition of female circumcision in Africa. Secondly, she isn't satisfied with the derogated images of black womanhood, so she voluntarily takes up the responsibility of recreating the images of black womanhood, delineating a group of lively and confident women characters like Meridian and Celie. Thirdly, Walker firmly believes the black sisterhood is the important means of the black women's emancipation. She vividly describes the sisterhood of the black women. Lastly, Walker wishes that black men and black women could establish an equal and harmonious relationship. In order to construct such a kind of relationship, black women must be independent and black men must get rid of the patriarchal ideas. Walker makes great contributions to the construction of the black female aesthetics in artistic forms as well. She makes a courageous attempt at the narrative techniques. In Meridian, she adopts the nonlinear narrative successfully. In The Color Purple, she employs the structure of the epistolary novel to construct a kind of feminist narrative. In language strategies, she uses the black dialect, name strategy and unique metaphor to show her black female consciousness. She also uses the traditional black women's artistic forms―"quilts"to symbolize the friendship among the women. Furthermore, the structures of all Walker's novels are like quilts, which are composed of small pieces. Walker's narrative techniques, language strategies and uses of symbols are inherited and adopted by the following black women writers. So it is reasonable she is addressed respectfully as the literary foremother by the succeeding black women writers.