Alice Walker

Description

This volume presents a variety of new essays on the American writer. For readers who are studying Walker for the first time, a biographical sketch relates the details of her life and four essays survey the critical reception of Walker's work, explore its cultural and historical contexts, situate Walker among her contemporaries, and review key themes in her work. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the writer can then move on to other essays that explore topics like Walker's symbolism, metaphysics, and aesthetics; her views on feminism (or, in her own words, womanism), faith and religion; her responses to the issues of her own day as well as American, and specifically Southern history, like politics, slavery, poverty, and sexism. Works discussed include long fiction such as Meridian, The Color Purple, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Temple of My Familiar; nonfiction from In Search of Our Mother's Gardens; as well as well selections of Walker's short stories and poetry. -- Publisher's website.