A New Historicist Perspective on the Transformation in Perception of Cultural Heritage in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Authors : Özlem Ulucan

Pages : 1920-1932

Doi:10.15869/itobiad.1522013

View : 96 | Download : 111

Publication Date : 2024-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Alice Walker is one of the pioneering writers stressing the discrimination against African Americans living in the Southern part of America. Since her mother worked as a maid in the houses of the whites for more than four decades, Walker endured the hardships of unequal and inhumane attitudes of the whites against colored people. She participated in the Civil Rights Movement to protest black oppression and segregation. In her short story, Everyday Use, she carefully organizes the scenario to describe two subsequent generations of oppressed black women and the ways they react to the difficulties dictated to them. Like Walker’s mother, Mama internalizes the dictations of the whites and keeps a submissive lifestyle. However, she keeps her bond with her African roots by appreciating her cultural heritage. She is illiterate colored people are discouraged from education by white authorities. Unlike her submissive mother, Dee, goes to university and constructs a kind of awareness related to the equal rights of African Americans. While visiting her family, she prefers a pan-African point of view to stress her African roots, which was the motto of the Civil Rights Movement. She rejects the dictations and discrimination against the colored people. She demands some objects from her mother including the quilts containing some pieces of the clothes of their relatives, the churn top, and the dasher to show off in her house. This article aims to reveal the transformation of cultural heritage to superficial material culture for subsequent generations, represented by Mama and Dee by new historicist literary theory. This theory will be useful in shedding light on the historical background of the time implied in the story. The possible reasons for the change in the perception of cultural heritage will be analyzed by a new historicist reading of the story.
Keywords : Alice Walker, Kültürel Miras, Gündelik Kullanım, Sivil Haklar Hareketi, Maddi Kültür, Moda.