To Build a Nation: Black Women Writers, Black Nationalism, and Violent Reduction of Wholeness

Abstract

For African American writers in the 196os and 1970s, interpreting black experience largely meant doing so in the context of the black nationalist movement. With its emphasis on community, a revolutionary future, and present subjectivity, black nationalism was proposed as the route to liberation -liberation that was to garner support in the works of black artists and the development of a black aesthetic that stressed racial stability and solidarity. Yet, in the midst of these shaping forces, African American women writers such as Alice Walker, Gayl Jones, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, and Louise Meriwether complicated notions of black unity and revolution by collectively showing that nation-building could not occur without discussing the relationships between black men and women and addressing the specific realities of