Autobiographical Projection: The Juxtaposition of Texts and Contexts in Alice Walker's Novels

Abstract

Before Alice Walker and other notable African-American female writers like Toni Morrison began to write about black experience in America, a battle of images had been raging between writers of pro-slavery South and the Abolitionist Movement. The black in America, generally speaking, was perceived as a subhuman species of mankind by whites. But the case of the black woman was particularly precarious. She was not only black, she was also female in a race-conscious society. This compounded the negativity that was associated with her image. The coming of Alice Walker into the struggle for the emancipation of black women in America heralds a radical shift in the age-old struggle. Her approach to the struggle is known to be defiant and unapologetic. It is worthy to note that one of the defining features of her works, particularly her novels, is their autobiographical undertone. She uses this mode of narration for her stories to have direct and immediate impact on her audience and the society they represent. It is for this reason that she employs conscious motives in selecting particular characters and situations in the depiction and projection of her ideas. She has even admitted in some interviews that she uses events in her novels to project herself and her views. This paper establishes how aspects of the writer’s personal life and outlook find their way in the delineation of her characters. In other words, part of our effort here dwells on the notion of linkage between life and art. The paper also highlights the fact that Walker is a good representation of the fact that no writer writes outside his experience. Part of our effort here therefore consists in looking into the role experience plays in the novelist’s creative imagination. This is illustrated with some of her interviews with notable critics. Through the interviews, the origins and motives of the author are illuminated. The paper also brings to the fore the use made of autobiographical materials in the novelist's writings. The paper establishes in the end that Walker creates characters who, despite racial and sexist inhibitions, are able to assert themselves.