Inscribing African American Women into the National Narrative: Lucille Clifton’s Generations as a Work of Life Writing Within the Black Arts Movement
Abstract
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) was a key figure of the Black Arts
Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. By dedicating her poems to her body
parts and her personal experiences at different stages of her life, she has
not only brought her African American attributes from the margins, but
also used her private female body to make political claims, shedding
light on the points where racial and gendered experiences overlap and
intersect. However, while her poetry has been celebrated and studied,
her autobiography, which is a unique example of life writing within
the Black Arts Movement, has been overlooked. This article aims to
take a close look at Generations (1976) to understand how life writing
could be a platform upon which Black Arts Movement and feminist
writing can intersect to reveal that the rediscovery of African American
women’s histories is crucial to the goal of locating African American
community in a historical chain.
Keywords
Black Arts Movement, African American Literature, Feminism, life writing, Lucille Clifton
References
- Braxton, Joanne M. Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition within a Tradition. Temple University Press, 1989.
- Cixous, Hélène, et al. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Signs, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976, pp. 875–93. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3173239.
- Clifton, Lucille. “at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989.” The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965- 2010, edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser, BOA Editions, 2012.
- ---. Generations: A Memoir. Random House, 1976.
- ---, and Michael S. Glaser. “I’d like Not to Be a Stranger in the World: A Conversation/Interview with Lucille Clifton.” The Antioch Review, vol. 58, no. 3, 2000, pp. 310–28. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/4614023.
- ---. “june 20.” The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010, edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser, BOA Editions, 2012.
- Collins, Patricia Hill. “From Black Feminist Thought.” Feminist Theory: A Reader, edited by Wendy K. Kolmar and Frances Bartowski, McGraw Hill, 2005, pp. 504-8.
- Holladay, Hilary. “Black Names in White Space: Lucille Clifton’s South.” The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, 2002, pp. 120–33. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20078337.
- Hooks, Bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Pluto Press, 1990.
- Jordan, June. “Don’t You Talk About My Mama!” Women: Images and Realities, edited by Amy Kesselman and Lily McNair, McGraw Hill, 2008, pp. 261–4