Inscribing African American Women into the National Narrative: Lucille Clifton’s Generations as a Work of Life Writing Within the Black Arts Movement

Year 2021, Issue: 55, 163 - 179, 01.05.2021

Meryem Bahar Karataş

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

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