Healers in Gloria Naylor's Fiction

Abstract

manifesting itself in care of others, been better presented than in the novels of Gloria Naylor. Less familiar than the triumvirate of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou, Naylor won a National Book Award in 1983 for best first novel and has published three others. Her works-The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day (1988), and Bailey's Cafe (1992)-feature themes of ancestry, generational conflict, economic exploitation, and lost dreams. In particular, Naylor has celebrated the power of love as a force that heals, bringing peace and wholeness. Her characters share their wealth: some through literal doctoring, others through psychic healing, still others through inspirational documents that they have left behind, and finally some through providing a haven for the needy. Although Naylor's healers sometimes resort to AMA- and APA-approved methods of restoring health, they transcend merely prescribing aspirin and engaging in talk therapy. Rather, they use holistic methods, archetypal practices, and even voodoo, linking themselves to atavistic practices of Africa. They heal heart and soul as well as body. As one of the major, though somewhat overlooked, African-American authors of the past two decades, Naylor herself has become what Marjorie Pryse terms a metaphorical conjure woman, a medium who, like Morrison, Walker, and others, make[s] it possible for . . . readers . . . to recognize their common literary ancestors (gardeners, quilt makers, grandmothers, root workers, and women who write autobiographies) and to name each other as a community of inheritors. Like her contemporaries, Pryse notes, Naylor highlights connection rather than separation, transforming silence into speech