Alice Walker's Metaphysics, Hardcover

Catapulted to fame in 1982 with the publication of her third novel--the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple--Alice Walker has become one of America's most celebrated and divisive authors. With books such as Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Walker's writing has frequently been cited for messages in support of civil rights and feminism. Above all, however, Walker is a spiritual seeker. Her works are dominated by the search for truth, wholeness, and the spirit that connects everyone and everything. In Alice Walker's Metaphysics: Literature of Spirit, Nagueyalti Warren examines the philosophy and worldview present in all of Walker's writing. Warren contends that Walker is a literary theologian, citing the transformative changes that take place in the author's fictional characters. Warren also points to Walker's bravery in approaching taboo subjects, her generosity of spirit, and her love for humanity, which are represented throughout her poems, novels, short stories, children's books, and essays. This analysis is further supplemented by primary sources from Walker's unpublished material, including notes and scrapbooks. By exploring the spirituality evident throughout the author's work, this volume shows how Walker challenges readers to recognize and understand their responsibility to the earth--and to one another. Providing a fresh, accessible look at one of the twentieth century's most prolific women writers, Alice Walker's Metaphysics: Literature of Spirit will appeal to both academics and fans of the author's varied literature.

Nagueyalti Warren, PhD, is a professor in the Department of African American Studies at Emory University, where she has taught literature and a seminar on the works of Alice Walker for thirty years. She is the editor of Temba Tupu (Walking Naked): Africana Women's Poetic Self-Portrait (2005) and Critical Insights: Alice Walker (2012). In addition to works of poetry--including Margaret, A Persona Poem (2008)--Warren is the author of W. E. B. Du Bois: Grandfather of Black Studies (2011).