Womanism in By the Light of My Father's Smile (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies - Literature, Andhra University (Department of English, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam), language: English, abstract: Alice Walker's 1998 novel By the Light of My Father's Smile as a womanist treatise invites attention, as it showcases the modern black woman who heralds in positive changes, develops womanist consciousness, and emerges as a whole woman despite oppressive racism, sexism and classism, that plague her in both their overt and covert forms. The text is a celebration of womanist consciousness that alleviates the condition of black women from victims to victors. It is a celebration of black womanhood, and female sexuality. This paper primarily focuses on womanism as a theory and the need to inculcate womanist consciousness to overcome the tripartite struggle faced by black women. The novel chiefly revolves around the lives of four women characters namely Susannah, Magdalena, Pauline and Irene to showcase the lives of African American and coloured women who develop womanist awareness with grit and determination to overcome oppression and marginalization. This paper specifically concentrates on the role model womanist of the novel Susannah, who emerges as a successful woman despite decapitating constrains. The novel showcases that womanism as a theory when put into practice in a pragmatic way offers many solutions to the tripartite struggle faced by black women.