Literary Precedents for How Stella Got Her Groove Back

This Study Guide consists of approximately 14 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

Literary Precedents for How Stella Got Her Groove Back

This Study Guide consists of approximately 14 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
This section contains 262 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the How Stella Got Her Groove Back Short Guide

How Stella Got Her Groove Back belongs in a broad sense to a long literary tradition of depicting African-American gender relations. Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937), and later Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye, 1970; see separate entry) and Alice Walker (The Color Purple, 1982; see separate entry) dealt with the theme. While critics have compared McMillan's confident, tough heroines to those of Morrison and Walker, there is general agreement that McMillan takes a much kinder approach to men.

McMillan's work is also acknowledged to represent a break with past and present African-American protest literature.

McMillan's protagonists are upbeat and strikingly successful in careers and urban life. Stella Payne is an outstanding example, and a strong departure from traditional depictions of women victimized by men.

McMillan has been credited with starting a literary movement comprised of writers who do not concern themselves especially with issues of...

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This section contains 262 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the How Stella Got Her Groove Back Short Guide
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