Deconstruction of the Racist-Sexist Stereotypes in Alice Walker's Novels

Abstract

This study holds that the analysis of any stereotyped construct disfunctions that stereotype. From this perspective, it dessects the stereotypes, constructed at the junction of race and gender which are well addressed in the novels of Alice Walker. It lays bare the western politics of representation which deploys the strategy of typifying humans in order to marginalize some people or Black women in this regard. This paper finds that instead of engaging herself in the binary practice of countering the canon, Walker depends on the methods of deconstruction, i.e., appropriating, re-defining, and re-assessing the negative tags commonly associated with Black women. She ventures to argue that the systems of racism and sexism converge to stereotype those women across the world. Her works offer complete Black feminist narratives where those women raise critical consciousness to break through the conventional assumptions about them. This study asserts that the subversive activities of Walker’s fictional women turn into reframing those purposive constructs. It first explores the mechanism of stereotyping implied in the studied novels and then analyzes why those stereotypes deserve re-interpretation and re-evaluation. In this regard, Walker, her fictional women, and this researcher meet to re-consider those negative images of Black women with a grave intention of re-generating cultural diversity and equity.