Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976

by Barbara Christian

Traces the traditions of Black American literature and examines the novels of Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker

275 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 1980

Reviews

[sdw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christian’s book examines black women novelists and the image of the black women in novels. Sometimes the line between black women writing novels and black women depicted within novels gets a little blurry. But the book was also written back when one needed to justify why it might be appropriate to include a whole chapter on Toni Morrison. This is a book written when not much had been written on black women novelists. An awful lot of text (the majority) is given to biographical information of authors, and plot summaries of novels. This makes it the kind of work I might assign to an undergraduate class on black women novelists because it covers an awful lot of background (particularly on the 19th century) that a beginner to the subject wouldn’t know.

The first half of the book examines representations of black women in fiction from the mid-19th century (Clotel) to Margaret Walker’s writings (mostly in the 1940s). The general framework is that black women in fiction slowly moved from stereotype to character. This section also provides a lot of historical background alongside its exploration of key tropes, particularly the tragic mulatta. The second half is given to an examination of three key figures: Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison. I found the final chapter which talked about the works of all three together to be the most compelling.