Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers

Download or read book Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers written by Valerie Lee and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Midwives, women healers and root workers have been central figures in the African American folk traditions. Particularly in Black communities in the rural south, these women served vital social, cultural and political functions. It was believed that they possessed magical powers: they negotiated the barrier between life and death and were often regarded as the "knower" in a community. Today even as medical science has discredited or superseded their power, granny midwives have resurfaced as pivotal characters in the narratives of contemporary African American literature. GrannyMidwives and Black Women Writersexamines the lives of realgranny midwives and other healers--through oral narratives, ethnographic research and documentation--and considers them in tandem with their fictional counterparts in the work of Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker and others.