[Review of] Lean'tin L. Bracks. Writings on Black Women of the Diaspora: History, Language, and Identity. Crosscurrents in African American History, Vol I

Authors

Helen Lock

Orginal Publication Date

1998

Journal Title

Ethnic Studies Review

Volume

21

Issue

esr/vol21/iss1

First Page

106

Last Page

107

Comments

The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Conference Perspectives and Retrospectives

Abstract

In her "Preface" to this study, Lean'tin Bracks describes her purpose as being "to describe a model which may provide for today's black woman a means to take control of her destiny by retrieving her Afrocentric legacy from the obscured past" (xi). This model, which she applies through discussions of The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1988), Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1982, and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow (1984), is tripartite: "historical awareness, attention to linguistic pattern, and sensitivity to stereotypes in the dominant culture" (xi).

Rights

​Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1998