| In recent years there has developed an increased interest in African American literature for children and African American women who write this literature. The demands placed upon this minuscule population can provide material resources for study and research. This dissertation will focus on discovering how factors in the lives of four African American women influence their writing of children's books and transcend the boundaries of critical analysis and literary acceptance. Dimensions of their philosophies will be gathered from preliminary questionnaires to them, in-depth interviews with them, the commentaries of others and from an examination of their works within the genre. The women's movement has heightened awareness and elevated the level of sensitivity to the state of neglect of African American literature and African American women writers. The assumptions that undergrid this qualitative study and provide a potential means for filling the chasm of imbalance are grounded in the theoretical framework of interpretive interactionism, and Black feminist theory, and Afrocentrism. This study is drawn from the documentation of life experiences that have been relevant influences surrounding the writing of children's literature by four African American women, Lucille Clifton, Pat Cummings, Pat McKissack, Irene Smalls. The social, political, critical, and cultural tenets of women writing from within the culture have been examined to identify these factors and to gain a better understanding of the unique perspectives of gender, race, language, and literature.*; *Originally published in DAI Vol. 61, No. 10. Republished here with corrected abstract. |
