Remembering our foremother: Older black women, politics of age, politics of survival as embodied in the novels of toni morrison

In this essay we examine the significance and meaning of novelist Toni Morrison’s works interms of American culture, literary originality, Black faminism and women’s spirituality. Our essayalso exemplifies and examines some differences between a white female’s and a Black female’s response to specific patterns in Morrison’s novels. We especially examine portraits of old Black women and their spiritual/political significance as foremothers whose survival ensured ours, brought us into being, and gives us strategy. We examine the meaning of these portraits of old Black women to both white and Black women. We use several critical frameworks: Biographical, sociological, mythological, archetypal and finally theories from Afro-American studies and from women’s studies. We also reflect on how Morrison’s women have stirred and awakened our own memories of older women in our lives. © 1986 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Duke Scholars

Author Karla Holloway English