Walker, Alice, 1944-

from Literature Online biography

Alice Walker (1944- ) is one of the most significant and outspoken black
women writers in the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
She is best known for her novels, particularly The Color Purple (1982) which
won the Pulitzer Prize, but she also writes poetry, short stories, essays and
autobiographical pieces. Walker's fiction concentrates on the perspective and
experiences of African-American women, particularly in the rural South. She
has often met with controversy, for she has been revolutionary in offering a
critique of both white racism and black patriarchy and misogyny. Indeed, much
of her writing explores life within African-American communities rather than
directly addressing their experiences with white society. Walker's fiction is
predominantly realist, but this is sometimes interwoven with spiritual and
supernatural elements. She tends to avoid linear narratives and other
conventions that she feels are part of white Western literary traditions. Instead,
her work shows the influence of nineteenth-century slave narratives as well as
that of black folklore and the culture of oral storytelling. She has also been
acclaimed for her authentic rendering of African-American dialect.

Alice Malsenior Walker was born on 9 February 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, the
eighth and youngest child of Minnie Grant Walker and Willie Lee Walker. Both
parents were sharecroppers (sometimes referred to as the 'new slavery') and life
was tough. In her early years Alice was a spirited and confident child until the
age of eight, when one of her brothers shot her with a BB gun, leaving her blind
in one eye and disfigured by scar tissue. Teased by other children, she became
shy and withdrawn, but this led her to books and she began to write her own
stories and poems. At the age of 14 a doctor removed Alice's scar tissue and
transformed her appearance but, though she went on to become high school
prom queen, she continued to carry the emotional scars of this experience.
In 1961, Walker won a full state scholarship to Spelman College, Atlanta,
where she studied for two years before transferring to Sarah Lawrence College,
New York. During this time she became actively involved in the Civil Rights
Movement. While passionate about these political activities, along with
developments in black literature, Walker realised that the emphasis was on the
rights and experiences of the black male, and this inspired her wish to articulate
a black female voice. In 1967, she married a white Jewish lawyer, Mel
Leventhal, with whom she had a daughter, Rebecca, in 1969. They lived in
Mississippi until divorcing in 1977, when Walker moved to California, which
remains her home.

Walker's first publication was a collection of poetry, Once (1968). It was

inspired partly by the Civil Rights Movement and partly by a summer that
Walker spent in Africa, but this was also a traumatic period during which she
became pregnant and had an abortion. The experience left her suicidal, and
writing these poems formed a part of her healing process. Subsequent poetry
collections include Revolutionary Petunias (1973); Good Night Willie Lee, I'll
See You in the Morning (1979); Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful
(1984); Her Blue Body Everything We Know (1990); and Absolute Trust in the
Goodness of the Earth (2003).
Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland , was published in
1970. It follows several generations of the Copelands, a sharecropper family
living in rural Georgia. Degraded by racism and poverty, Grange Copeland and
his son are both violent towards their respective wives and children, but Grange
undergoes an emotional journey in which he gains self-respect and respect for
others, passing on what he has learnt to his granddaughter who embodies hope
for the future.

As Walker's literary reputation began to grow, she published her first collection
of short stories, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973), which
depicts what was to become one of her major themes, that of black women
endeavouring to transcend oppression (both racist and sexist) and to develop
self-respect. Laura Niesen de Abruna comments on Walker's philosophy: '[. . .]
one must not only survive, but survive without being splintered and degraded'
(Walker entry in Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature , ed. Serafin,
1999). Later collections of short stories include You Can't Keep a Good Woman
Down (1981) and The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart (2000).
Walker's second novel, Meridian, was published in 1976. It is one of her most
overtly political novels, along with Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).
Meridian Hill is a young black woman from the South, and her personal story is
set against the social and political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly
the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles of both the black community and
women to attain self-respect and legal and social equality. Meridian works
selflessly for the Civil Rights Movement while undergoing her own emotional
and spiritual journey, particularly in healing her relationship with her mother.
Like all of Walker's protagonists, Meridian's challenge is maintaining self-
respect in the face of abuse and oppression, and also in developing a sense of
herself both as a strong, independent individual and as a member of a cultural
group. Whereas Grange Copeland is written in a linear narrative, Meridian is the
first of Walker's novels to experiment with different forms and structures,
moving back and forth in time. Like the novels that followed, Meridian draws
on black folklore and oral storytelling traditions in its rich use of metaphor,
monologues and interspersed stories. As such, Walker helped to pave the way
for a distinctive African-American literary tradition.

The Color Purple (1982), winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and later adapted
into a film directed by Stephen Spielberg , is Walker's most acclaimed and well-
known novel. Written in epistolary form, and employing idiomatic language, its
main focus is the relationship between Celie, growing up in rural Georgia, and
her sister Nettie, who is working as a missionary in Africa. Unlike Meridian,
who undergoes her emotional journey primarily on her own, Celie's story
celebrates the transformative healing power of female friendships and
relationships, and suggests the possibility of non-patriarchal communities.
Celie's early life is horrific -- she is repeatedly raped by her stepfather, gives
birth to his children who are then taken away from her, and is forced to marry a
man who continues this pattern of physical and emotional abuse. Celie's life is
transformed, however, when she forms a relationship with Shug Avery, who is
initially her husband's mistress. Shug helps Celie to develop a sense of her own
inner beauty, and gradually Celie overcomes the effects of years of degradation,
until eventually she is able to acknowledge herself as a person of worth. The
two women set up a home and business together; as Niesen de Abruna
comments, 'Walker offers a vision of a non-sexist, nonexploitative society in
which her home is the center of an extended family.'
The Color Purple triggered strong reactions amongst black communities, some
of whom felt that Walker's candid depiction of abusive behaviour and misogyny
in black men betrayed their fight for racial equality and self-respect. Yet Walker
has always been determined to explore the 'triple bind' in which many black
American women find themselves -- that of racism, sexism and poverty -- and
to expose the shortcomings of movements for racial equality that overlook the
female experience.

In 1983, Walker published her most well-known collection of essays, In Search

of Our Mother's Gardens . In the groundbreaking title essay, she coined the
term 'womanist', as opposed to 'feminist', to refer to a black feminist, making the
point that white Western feminism has its limitations and often fails to
understand the viewpoint and experiences of women from different cultures.
Walker comments: 'Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.' It is
therefore a slightly different 'shade', related to feminism but with a clear identity
of its own. 'Womanism' originates from an African-American expression, used
by mothers when their little girls are trying to be grown-up, confident and sassy,
as for example: 'You acting womanish.' Gerri Bates comments:
Therefore it has a take-charge appeal, which is the message that Walker wants
to get across to contemporary African-American womanists, who in being
womanist seek out African-American ancestors, make spiritual connections,
preserve the artistic spirit, and take charge of their own existences and those in
their charge.

In 1988 Walker published Living By the Word: Selected Writings, 1973-1987 .

She has also written various autobiographical works (usually collections of
miscellaneous pieces), including The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult
(1996) and We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For (2006).
Some of Walker's later novels are loosely linked to The Color Purple , though
they cannot be termed sequels. The Temple of My Familiar (1989), which
features Fanny, granddaughter of Celie, is Walker's most spiritual work. Based
around the story of three couples, this novel moves back and forth in time,
spanning a period of 500,000 years. Lissie is a character who has reincarnated
many times, and remembers her former lives, in which she has been both male
and female, black and white. Her memories offer a vast picture of human
history, and particularly of race relations and gender relations, and the novel
encourages African Americans to boost their sense of self-worth by connecting
with their past -- cultural, spiritual and mythical. Trudier Harris comments on
the response to this novel: 'Critics complained that the novel was too talky and
too New Age, but it has found a faithful following among those who believe
that harmony with the earth and all its creatures is of paramount concern'
(Walker entry in The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United
States, 1995, eds. Davidson and Wagner-Martin).
Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), set in Africa, tells the story of Tashi, who
was the best friend of Celie's daughter Olivia in The Color Purple. Possessing
the Secret of Joy is a candid portrayal of the horrors of female circumcision,
against which Walker has actively campaigned for many years. The story is told
through Tashi's memories -- now living in America and married to Celie's son
Adam, she begins to experience flashbacks and undergoes therapy to recall her
traumatic experience of female circumcision. Walker was praised for her
courage in tackling this taboo subject, though critics have also pointed out the
difficulties involved in attacking a tribal practice from the perspective of one
who was born and brought up in the West. One of the significant criticisms of
Walker's work in general is her tendency to take a sentimental and sometimes
preachy tone.

Walker's more recent novels include By the Light of My Father's Smile (1998)
and Now is the Time to Open Your Heart (2005). The first of these, like much of
Walker's fiction, explores female sexuality and family relationships, as a family
of African-American anthropologists travel to Mexico to study a tribe
descended from black slaves and Native Americans. The protagonist is coming
to terms with, and learning to celebrate and enjoy, the process of aging --
Walker, who was in her sixties by the time this novels was published, had
noticed that there is a shortage of fictional explorations of growing older, and
certainly very few that celebrate the process.

Walker has also edited various collections, and she is particularly noted for her
recovery of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, who has been one of her greatest
influences and inspirations. Walker edited the highly acclaimed collection, I
Love Myself When I Am Laughing . . . and Then Again When I Am Looking
Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader (1979). Walker's other
influences include Flannery O'Connor and Virginia Woolf. Walker is acclaimed
for her significant role in the development of African-American literature, and
particularly for her revolutionary stance in articulating the experiences and the
particular oppressions of the black female -- and in so doing, attacking black
patriarchy as well as white dominance. The forms and structures of her fiction,
along with its thematic concerns, have helped to create a distinctive style
through which to express African-American experience. Jan Pilditch comments:
The era of the so-called Harlem Renaissance drew together a number of gifted
black American writers who gave voice to the black experience. Some used
traditional poetic forms and metaphors to describe the black condition, but
others like Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston worked to establish a black
voice in American literature. They drew on the rich Afro-American oral culture
with its store of stories, songs, narrative incidents, phrase and metaphor, and
developed the necessary literary expertise to translate the lived experience, with
its idiomatic language, onto the printed page. Alice Walker, as a contemporary
black writer from the American south, stands well within this tradition. (Walker
entry in Contemporary Novelists , 1991, ed. Henderson)

Further critical resources include: Alice Walker (1992), by Donna Haisty

Winchell; Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (1993), eds
Henry Louis Gates and K.A. Appiah ; Critical Essays on Alice Walker (1999),
ed. Ikenna Dieke; Alice Walker (2000, Modern Novelists Series), by Maria
Lauret; Alice Walker: A Life (2004), by Evelyn C. White; and Alice Walker: A
Critical Companion (2005), by Gerri Bates.