paper-8 cultural studies

Submitted to M. K. Bhavnagar University, India, Gujarat[Bhavnagar]

Prepared by Vyas Nupur H.Email id: nupurvyas1995@gmail.comSubject: paper-8 cultural studiesTopic: Evaluate culture in the novel “The Women of Brewster Place”Roll No:39

Introduction of Gloria Naylor

Gloria Naylor is an American novelist.

Naylor ‘s debut novel, ‘’The Women of Brewster Place’’, was published in 1982 and won the 1983 National Book Award in the category First Novel.

Naylor became influenced by the works of African-American female authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and especially Toni Morrison.

Naylor began writing stories centered on the lives of African-American women, which resulted in her first novel, ‘’The Women of Brewster Place’’.

American Multiculturalism

In 1965 the Watts race riots drew world wide attention.

The Civil Rights Act had passed in 1964, and the backlash was well under way in 1965: murders and other atrocities attended the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

African American students in the south attended segregated schools, discrimination was still unquestioned in most industries.

Continue… Interracial marriage was still illegal

in many states. Nearly half century later , evolving

identities of racial and ethnic groups have not claimed a place in the main stream of American life , but have challenged the very notion of ‘Race’

Social scientists seen as construct invented by whites to assign social status and privilege, without scientific relevance.

Continue… Unlike sex, for which there are x and y

chromosome, race has no genetic market.

Without biological criteria ‘Race’ is arbitrary.

‘’Race’’ is still a critical feature of American life , full of contradictions and ambiguities; it is at once the greatest source of social conflict and the richest source of cultural development in America.

African American writers

• African American studies is widely pursued in American literary criticism, from the recovery of the eighteenth-century poets such as Phillis Wheatley to the experimental novel of Toni Morrison.

• Toni Morrison shows irritation when she is constantly discussed as ‘Black Writer ’ instead of merely as writer.

• Morrison’s works such as The bluest eye [1970], Song of Solomon[1977], Beloved[1987] give readers riveting insights into the painful lives of her black protagonists as they confront racism in all its forms in American society.

A brief Introduction on “The Women of Brewster place”

The Women of Brewster Place depicts seven courageous black women struggling to survive life’s harsh realities. She stresses that African American

must maintain their identity in their identity in a world dominated by whites.

Gloria Naylor’s “The Women Of Brewster Place” is made up of seven stories of the women who live on Brewster Place, a dead end street cut off from the city by a wall.

Characters of novel Mattie Michel is most consistent and prominent character the novel.

She has endured her share of hardships-losing a child , fleeing her parents home, and losing her own home.

Her generous heart and deep faith represents African American women in general.

She is an older women and surrogate mother figure to several of other women.

Continue.. Etta Mae Johnson spends the bulk of her

life after fleeing the south searching to fulfill some unnamed desire ,a mixture of the a desire for love , stability, someone with whom to share her life.

She sees herself as tragic and lonely figure.

Etta is Mattie’s childhood friend. Etta moves from one man to the next,

hoping to find in each of them at least a part of what she’s seeking.

About race culture Brewster place offering a home to the

one new wave of migrants after another . The life history of Brewster place comes

to resemble the history of the country as the community changes with each new historical shift.

Following the civil rights era , Brewster place inherits its last inhabitants, African-American ,many of whom are migrants from the southern half of the United States.

The stories within the novel are the stories of these residents.

Resources

Wikipedia Spark notes encyclopedia

Thank you