Naylor, Gloria (1950—)
Gloria Naylor, one of the most influential African American women writers of the late twentieth century, came to prominence in 1982 when she published The Women of Brewst...
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The author Gloria Naylor (born 1950) wrote novels that emphasized the strengths of women, especially African American women, and the effects on the lives of people of racism, sexism, and the drive for...
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"I . . . wanted to be a writer from the time I was twelve or thirteen years old. But whether that was going to be a probable goal for me didn't come up as an issue for me until my college years," nove...
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As author of The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor has assured her place in a body of literature which she has revered since childhood, a reverence owed directly to her mother. "My parents were f...
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The emergence of Gloria Naylor on the American literary scene was sudden--The Women of Brewster Place (1982) was her first book--and intense, as Naylor added her voice to those of the few black women ...
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In the following essay, Andrews discusses the concept of black sisterhood, as portrayed in Naylor's early novels, and how it promotes “a sense of identity, purpose, and strength for surv...
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In the following review, Barnes discusses the suspension of disbelief and the use of blues music in Bailey's Cafe.
Gloria Naylor in her fourth novel continues the traditions she has establis...
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In the following excerpt, Erickson discusses Naylor's humor in Bailey's Cafe and comments on Naylor's views regarding cooperation among different racial and ethnic groups.
Bail...
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In the following essay, Toombs argues that the foods that the characters eat in Linden Hills shows their connection, or lack thereof, with their African-American cultural heritage.
Yet the people w...
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In the following essay, Delgado discusses the voice of the women in The Women of Brewster Place which subverts white misconceptions regarding African Americans.
It would appear that books, like gen...
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In the following essay, Puhr examines the healing power of love and the role of healers in Naylor's fiction.
During a 1993 talk in St. Louis, poet Nikki Giovanni asserted, “Black love...
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In the following essay, Kubitschek explores the connections between Naylor's Mama Day and the works of Toni Morrison and William Shakespeare.
In 1987, Barbara Christian asserted that importa...
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In the following essay, Montgomery discusses the biblical allusions in Bailey's Cafe and asserts that the work is a culmination of Naylor's three previous novels.
Bailey's Cafe...
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In the following essay, Storhoff analyzes how Naylor reinterprets William Shakespeare's The Tempest in her novel Mama Day.
In Gloria Naylor's novel Mama Day, Reema's boy comes ...
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In the following essay, Eckard examines how Naylor's Mama Day and Lee Smith's Oral History both demonstrate ways in which re-examining one's past can lead to a better understandin...
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In the following essay, Page examines the metaphorical image of the abyss in Bailey's Cafe.
In Toni Morrison's Jazz, the imagery of wells is significant. Because Violet Trace's...
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In the following essay, Matus discusses the role of dreams in The Women of Brewster Place and considers why Naylor chose to end the novel with a dream.
After presenting a loose community of six sto...
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In the following review, Thomas offers a positive assessment of The Men of Brewster Place.
Gloria Naylor's The Men of Brewster Place is a profound work that explores the other side of the ge...
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In the following essay, Levin discusses Naylor's pairing of motherhood and the mystical in her novels and how these elements signify a connection to African models of female leadership.
The ...
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In the following essay, Thompson discusses Naylor's focus on race and gender in Mama Day and Bailey's Cafe.
In their attempts to analyze the texts in Gloria Naylor's complicate...
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In the following essay, Whitt provides an overview of Naylor's life and career.
Career
Gloria Naylor's first four novels—The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985)...
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In the following mixed review, Montgomery asserts the importance of Naylor's exploration of African-American manhood in The Men of Brewster Place, but notes several serious flaws in the novel.
...
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In the following essay, Collins discusses how the parallel narratives of Willa and Willie in Linden Hills raise questions about how African Americans can live the American Dream without losing their r...
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In the following interview, Naylor talks about her background, the role of community in her work, and her relationship to her characters.
[Carabi:] Toni Morrison told me that, despite growing up in...
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In the following mixed review, Kaveney praises Naylor as a gifted writer, but complains that Bailey's Cafe contains serious structural flaws.
In her first three novels, Gloria Naylor describ...
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In the following essay, Montgomery discusses Naylor's use of the descent motif in The Women of Brewster Place.
The Women of Brewster Place is an experimental novel that functions as a rare, ...
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In the following review of Bailey's Cafe, Fowler argues that the beauty of Naylor's prose prevents the emotional pain of the characters from becoming overwhelming.
Geographically, Bai...
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In the following review, Rifkind offers a mixed assessment of Bailey's Cafe.
Gloria Naylor's is a commanding fictional voice: sonorous, graceful, sometimes piercing, often spellbindin...
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In the following excerpt, Wilentz praises Bailey's Cafe for addressing a “broad spectrum” of the female African-American experience.
Gloria Naylor, in Bailey's Cafe, add...
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Critical Essay by Susan Bolotin
Imagine a sort of Catfish Row moved North. Snow and rain have replaced the buzzards as omens, and Ben, a pure-hearted janitor who drinks too much, is standing in for P...
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