paper-8 cultural studies

1. Prepared byVyas Nupur H.
Email id: nupurvyas1995@gmail.com
Subject: paper-8 cultural studies
Topic: Evaluate culture in the novel “The
Women of Brewster Place”
Roll No:39

2.  Gloria Naylor is an American novelist.
 Naylor ‘s debut novel, ‘’TheWomen of
Brewster Place’’, was published in 1982
and won the 1983 National Book Award
in the category First Novel.
 Naylor became influenced by the works of
African-American female authors such as
Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and
especiallyToni Morrison.
 Naylor began writing stories centered on the
lives of African-American women, which
resulted in her first novel, ‘’The Women of
Brewster Place’’.

3.  In 1965 the Watts race riots drew world
wide attention.
 The Civil Rights Act had passed in 1964,
and the backlash was well under way in
1965: murders and other atrocities
attended the civil rights march from
Selma to Montgomery.
 African American students in the south
attended segregated schools,
discrimination was still unquestioned in
most industries.

4.  Interracial marriage was still illegal in
many states.
 Nearly half century later , evolving
identities of racial and ethnic groups
have not claimed a place in the main
stream of American life , but have
challenged the very notion of ‘Race’
 Social scientists seen as construct
invented by whites to assign social
status and privilege, without scientific
relevance.

5.  Unlike sex, for which there are x and y
chromosome, race has no genetic
market.
 Without biological criteria ‘Race’ is
arbitrary.
 ‘’Race’’ is still a critical feature of
American life , full of contradictions and
ambiguities; it is at once the greatest
source of social conflict and the richest
source of cultural development in
America.

6. • African American studies is widely
pursued in American literary criticism,
from the recovery of the eighteenth-
century poets such as PhillisWheatley to
the experimental novel ofToni Morrison.
• Toni Morrison shows irritation when she
is constantly discussed as ‘BlackWriter ’
instead of merely as writer.
• Morrison’s works such asThe bluest eye
[1970], Song of Solomon[1977],
Beloved[1987] give readers riveting
insights into the painful lives of her black
protagonists as they confront racism in
all its forms in American society.

7. TheWomen of Brewster Place depicts
seven courageous black women struggling
to survive life’s harsh realities.
 She stresses that African American must
maintain their identity in their identity
in a world dominated by whites.
 Gloria Naylor’s “TheWomen Of
Brewster Place” is made up of seven
stories of the women who live on
Brewster Place, a dead end street cut off
from the city by a wall.

8. Mattie Michel is most consistent and prominent
character the novel.
She has endured her share of hardships-losing a child ,
fleeing her parents home, and losing her own home.
Her generous heart and deep faith representsAfrican
American women in general.
She is an older women and surrogate mother figure to
several of other women.

9.  Etta Mae Johnson spends the bulk of her life after
fleeing the south searching to fulfill some
unnamed desire ,a mixture of the a desire for love ,
stability, someone with whom to share her life.
 She sees herself as tragic and lonely figure.
 Etta is Mattie’s childhood friend.
 Etta moves from one man to the next, hoping to
find in each of them at least a part of what she’s
seeking.

10.  Brewster place offering a home to the
one new wave of migrants after another .
 The life history of Brewster place comes
to resemble the history of the country as
the community changes with each new
historical shift.
 Following the civil rights era , Brewster
place inherits its last inhabitants, African-
American ,many of whom are migrants
from the southern half of the United
States.
 The stories within the novel are the
stories of these residents.

11.  Wikipedia
 Spark notes
 encyclopedia