Postcolonial Feminist Theory: An Overview - Igcollege.org

Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedConstructive Alternatives of Community and Space in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day andWomen of Brewster Place: A Case in Feminist Discourse--Professor Rambhau BadodeDepartment of EnglishUniversity of MumbaiDiscourse on the importance of community isa central one in contemporary AfricanAmerican literature. Power of communalbond has been foregrounded in the works ofBlack women writers such as Toni Morrison,Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor. This paperis an attempt to trace the alternate communitypatterns, which Gloria Naylor proposes inMama Day and Women of Brewster Place.Attempts are also made to see how Naylordevelops community paradigms, which resistthe enclosed community structures ofpatriarchy and capitalism. Using the tools ofBlack Cultural Feminism, the paper will alsoanalyze how Gloria Naylor locatesalternative spaces in the community inMama Day and Women of Brewster Placeas a site of ploy vocal expression andinterpersonal subjectivity. The basicargument of the study is that the alternatecommunity in Naylor's works, which is oftenlead by strong culture-bearing women,demands a surrender of short term personalobjectives in the larger interest of collectivesurvival.IAfrican American Women's writings arenegotiations with space as much they areconcerned with issues like race, gender andclass. Novelists like Toni Morrison, AliceWalker and Gloria Naylor are aware of theneed of negotiating space, creating itwhenever possible in the act of writing.These novelists make attempts to locate newfeminist spaces both within and outside thecommunity. They are also aware that blackwomen are made to feel inferior, by theagencies of patriarchy and racism. Theyhave no space for themselves and they haveto occupy the space granted to them by theseagencies. This haunting sense of not havingone's space within the home, family orsociety affects largely the self-image of ablack woman. It also adds the agony ofdependence and a feeling of dispossession, tothe already exploited life of a black woman.The definitions of space by the domineeringagencies, however, are on the basis ofphysical barriers such as walls, doors andfences or on the basis of logical binaries suchas self / other and presence / absence. Blackwomen writers, the ones mentioned abovesubvert and alter these patriarchal parametersof space and community in their works.This paper is a study of strategies employedby Gloria Naylor in Mama Day and Womenof Brewster to create alternatives forcommunity and black female space. It is alsoan attempt to find how Naylor debunks theconventional, patriarchal images anddimensions of space. Further, Naylor'screation of alternative spaces can beconsidered as an effort to valorise the use ofimagination, parody and the gendered actsuch as birth giving and nurturance. Theseblack feminist techniques tear apart thepatriarchal definition of space. The binarylogic can be traced in abundance in Naylor'sworks. Naylor's creation of alternative spacesand community could also be considered asan act of placing black women in oppressor'world and oppressor's language, but withgreater mobility and subversive power.Willow Springs, the island setting of MamaDay itself is a space that is located outsidethe American mainland. Naylor stresses theessential otherness of Willow Springs withits vagrant weather and magic. In this specialspace, she places black women who becomeimages of female identity and positive selfimage.Willow Springs aligns itself with anAfrican heritage rather than an Americanone. it reminds one of West Africanlandscape and the women who live there alsoinvoke the spirituality and strength of womenof the African heritage. To disengageWillow Springs from the mainland cultures,Naylor emphasizes the dissimilarities289 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1