Alice Walker's early story, "Everyday Use," has remained a cornerstone of her work. Her use of quilting as a metaphor for the creative legacy that African Americans inherited from their maternal ancestors changed the way we define art, women's culture, and African American lives. By putting African American women's voices at the center of the narrative for the first time, "Everyday Use" anticipated the focus of an entire generation of black women writers.
This casebook includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of Walker's life, an authoritative text of "Everyday Use" and of "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," an interview with Walker, six critical essays, and a bibliography. The contributors are Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Thadious M. Davis, Margot Anne Kelley, John O'Brien, Elaine Showalter, and Mary Helen Washington.
This casebook includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of Walker's life, an authoritative text of "Everyday Use" and of "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," an interview with Walker, six critical essays, and a bibliography. The contributors are Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Thadious M. Davis, Margot Anne Kelley, John O'Brien, Elaine Showalter, and Mary Helen Washington.
BARBARA T. CHRISTIAN is a professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Alice Walker and "The Color Purple"; Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers; and Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition 1892-1976.
Introduction - Barbara T. Christian
Chronology
Everyday Use - Alice Walker
Background to the Story:
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens - Alice Walker
For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties - Alice Walker
Interview with Alice Walker - John O'Brien
Critical Essays:
An Essay on Alice Walker - Mary Helen Washington
Alice Walker's Celebration of Self in Southern Generations - Thadious M. Davis
Alice Walker: The Black Woman as an Artist - Barbara T. Christian
Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use' - Houston A. Baker, Jr., and Charlotte Pierce-Baker
Sisters' Choices: Quilting Aesthetics in Contemporary African-American Women's Fiction - Margot Anne Kelley
Common Threads - Elaine Showalter
Selected Bibliography
Permissions
Chronology
Everyday Use - Alice Walker
Background to the Story:
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens - Alice Walker
For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties - Alice Walker
Interview with Alice Walker - John O'Brien
Critical Essays:
An Essay on Alice Walker - Mary Helen Washington
Alice Walker's Celebration of Self in Southern Generations - Thadious M. Davis
Alice Walker: The Black Woman as an Artist - Barbara T. Christian
Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use' - Houston A. Baker, Jr., and Charlotte Pierce-Baker
Sisters' Choices: Quilting Aesthetics in Contemporary African-American Women's Fiction - Margot Anne Kelley
Common Threads - Elaine Showalter
Selected Bibliography
Permissions
