Description
Book SynopsisCatapulted to fame in 1982 with the publication of her third novel—the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Color Purple—Alice Walker has become one of America’s most celebrated and divisive authors. With books such as Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Walker’s writing has frequently been cited for messages in support of civil rights and feminism. Above all, however, Walker is a spiritual seeker. Her works are dominated by the search for truth, wholeness, and the spirit that connects everyone and everything. In Alice Walker’s Metaphysics: Literature of Spirit, Nagueyalti Warren examines the philosophy and worldview present in all of Walker’s writing. Warren contends that Walker is a literary theologian, citing the transformative changes that take place in the author’s fictional characters. Warren also points to Walker’s bravery in approaching taboo subjects, her generosity of spirit, and her love for humanity, which are represented throughout her poems, novels, short stories, children’s books, and essays. This analysis is further supplemented by primary sources from Walker’s unpublished material, including notes and scrapbooks. By exploring the spirituality evident throughout the author’s work, this volume shows how Walker challenges readers to recognize and understand their responsibility to the earth—and to one another. Providing a fresh, accessible look at one of the twentieth century’s most prolific women writers, Alice Walker’s Metaphysics: Literature of Spirit will appeal to both academics and fans of the author’s varied literature.
Trade ReviewAfter a full career of academic research and teaching Alice Walker’s work, Nagueyalti Warren has produced a thorough, illuminating, and resonant analysis of Walker’s metaphysical imagination. Warren’s book heightens the understanding of Walker’s complex literary sensibility. -- Sally Wolff King, Ph.D., Woodruff Health Sciences Center historian, adjunct faculty, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University
In Alice Walker’s Metaphysics, Warren astutely recognizes in Walker’s eclectic body of work a knowing that is beyond a centrist’s understanding of religions and theologies, indeed a spiritual knowing that occupies expanding circles of mysticism. -- Joanne Veal Gabbin, executive director, Furious Flower Poetry Center
Nagueyalti Warren carefully examines Alice Walker’s reading history, the archival records of how Walker composed her works in various genres, and how contemporary students respond to the issues Walker raises—all to build and refine a strong case that Walker is anything but a dabbler in new-age superficialities. Warren’s Walker is a seriously sermonizing pagan, a profoundly and consistently mystical maker of literature. Warren’s analyses of the famous story “Everyday Use” and of The Color Purple are especially useful. -- Marshall Bruce Gentry, Georgia College
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Dark Beginnings Chapter 2: Spirit in the Dark Chapter 3: What we Love, We Save Chapter 4: Amazing Grace Chapter 5: Dear God Chapter 6: Entering the Temple Chapter 7: Sexual Healing Chapter 8: Opening to Spirit Chapter 9: When the Other Dancer is the Self Chapter 10: Mystic Walker Selected References Index About the Author
