Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

A Patchwork Quilt: Short Story Cycle in Gloria Naylor's the Women of Brewster Place


Affiliations
1 Department of English, Sankara College of Science and Commerce, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore – 641035, Tamil Nadu, India
 

Gloria Naylor, a celebrated African American novelist, presents in The Women of Brewster Place the struggles and hopes of seven women who choose to live in Brewster Place for some reason or the other. Though of different age and from different background, the women reach out to each other and together find the strength to resist oppression. Through short story cycle, Naylor establishes that however ordinary her life might be, in each woman there is something to admire and something to honour or remember. Its structure is an advantage to the writer to give voice to as many women as she desires. Moving away from the traditional form and linear narrative, Naylor has made use of short story cycle which suits her attempt to retrieve the lost ‘her’ stories and bring to light the experiences unexplored and excluded even by the male black writers.

Keywords

Deferred Dreams, Ignored Voices, Short Story Cycle, The Women of Brewster Place.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Naylor G, Toni M. A conversation. Southern Review. 1985 Jul; 21:567–93. Print.
  • Angels C. An interview with Gloria Naylor. Montgomery, Conversations. pp. 111–122. Print.
  • Ingram FL. Representative short story cycles of the 20th C: Studies in a literary genre. Mouton: The Hague; 1971. Print. Crossref
  • Cox KC. Magic and memory in the contemporary story cycle: Gloria Naylor and Louise Erdrich. College English 60.2; 1998 Feb. pp. 150–171.
  • Mann SG. The short story cycle: A genre companion and reference guide. New York: Greenwood Press; 1989. Print.
  • Naylor G. The women of Brewster place. New York: Viking Press; 1982. Print.
  • Fowler VC. Gloria Naylor: In search of sanctuary. New York: Twayne; 1996. Print.
  • Jacqueline B, Seiter E. Black feminism and media criticism: The women of Brewster place. Felton and Loris; pp. 26–42. Print.
  • Wilson, Charles E, Gloria Naylor: A critical companion. London: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
  • Jia LLEE. Gloria Naylor’s colours in the patchwork quilt of African American Fiction, Durham E-Theses, Durham University; 1999.
  • Michael A. Inspiring influences: Tradition, revision and AfroAmerican women’s novels. New York: Columbia Univ Press; 1989. Print.

Abstract Views: 663

PDF Views: 422




  • A Patchwork Quilt: Short Story Cycle in Gloria Naylor's the Women of Brewster Place

Abstract Views: 663  |  PDF Views: 422

Authors

N. Kannamma
Department of English, Sankara College of Science and Commerce, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore – 641035, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract


Gloria Naylor, a celebrated African American novelist, presents in The Women of Brewster Place the struggles and hopes of seven women who choose to live in Brewster Place for some reason or the other. Though of different age and from different background, the women reach out to each other and together find the strength to resist oppression. Through short story cycle, Naylor establishes that however ordinary her life might be, in each woman there is something to admire and something to honour or remember. Its structure is an advantage to the writer to give voice to as many women as she desires. Moving away from the traditional form and linear narrative, Naylor has made use of short story cycle which suits her attempt to retrieve the lost ‘her’ stories and bring to light the experiences unexplored and excluded even by the male black writers.

Keywords


Deferred Dreams, Ignored Voices, Short Story Cycle, The Women of Brewster Place.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.15613/hijrh%2F2017%2Fv4i2%2F167542