MADHU DUBEY is Assistant Professor in African American Literature at Northwestern University.

"A clear and uncluttered writer, Dubey helps us understand these ideological and literary complexities." - Virginia Quarterly Review " ... an important contribution to the study of African-American women's fiction. Not only does it provide a compelling introductory account of the nationalist aesthetic, but it provides a detailed documentation of the way in which each of these novels was received in the critical climate of the seventies." - College Literature " ... essential reading for anyone intrigued by the narrative craft and social impact of the novels of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Gayl Jones." - Claudia Tate "Dubey forcefully articulates the connection between political and personal mediation in these novels with subtlety, depth, and complexity and without obscuring their textuality." - Signs

• Introduction: Black Feminist CriticismI. I Am New Man: Black Nationalism and the Black AestheticII. What Did We Lack?: Uses of the Grotesque Mode in The Bluest EyeIII. No Bottom and No Top: Oppositions in SulaIV. A New World Song: The Blues Form of CorregidoraV. Don't You Explain Me: The Unreadability of Eva's ManVI. To Survive Whole: The Integrative Aims of Womanism in The Third Life of Grange CopelandVII. A Crazy Quilt: The Multivalent Pattern of MeridianConclusion: Black Women's Fiction in the 1970sNotesIndex

MADHU DUBEY is Assistant Professor in African American Literature at Northwestern University.

"A clear and uncluttered writer, Dubey helps us understand these ideological and literary complexities." - Virginia Quarterly Review " ... an important contribution to the study of African-American women's fiction. Not only does it provide a compelling introductory account of the nationalist aesthetic, but it provides a detailed documentation of the way in which each of these novels was received in the critical climate of the seventies." - College Literature " ... essential reading for anyone intrigued by the narrative craft and social impact of the novels of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Gayl Jones." - Claudia Tate "Dubey forcefully articulates the connection between political and personal mediation in these novels with subtlety, depth, and complexity and without obscuring their textuality." - Signs

• Introduction: Black Feminist CriticismI. I Am New Man: Black Nationalism and the Black AestheticII. What Did We Lack?: Uses of the Grotesque Mode in The Bluest EyeIII. No Bottom and No Top: Oppositions in SulaIV. A New World Song: The Blues Form of CorregidoraV. Don't You Explain Me: The Unreadability of Eva's ManVI. To Survive Whole: The Integrative Aims of Womanism in The Third Life of Grange CopelandVII. A Crazy Quilt: The Multivalent Pattern of MeridianConclusion: Black Women's Fiction in the 1970sNotesIndex

MADHU DUBEY is Assistant Professor in African American Literature at Northwestern University.

"A clear and uncluttered writer, Dubey helps us understand these ideological and literary complexities." - Virginia Quarterly Review " ... an important contribution to the study of African-American women's fiction. Not only does it provide a compelling introductory account of the nationalist aesthetic, but it provides a detailed documentation of the way in which each of these novels was received in the critical climate of the seventies." - College Literature " ... essential reading for anyone intrigued by the narrative craft and social impact of the novels of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Gayl Jones." - Claudia Tate "Dubey forcefully articulates the connection between political and personal mediation in these novels with subtlety, depth, and complexity and without obscuring their textuality." - Signs

• Introduction: Black Feminist CriticismI. I Am New Man: Black Nationalism and the Black AestheticII. What Did We Lack?: Uses of the Grotesque Mode in The Bluest EyeIII. No Bottom and No Top: Oppositions in SulaIV. A New World Song: The Blues Form of CorregidoraV. Don't You Explain Me: The Unreadability of Eva's ManVI. To Survive Whole: The Integrative Aims of Womanism in The Third Life of Grange CopelandVII. A Crazy Quilt: The Multivalent Pattern of MeridianConclusion: Black Women's Fiction in the 1970sNotesIndex