The Epistles of Experience: Creating an Authentic Feminine Space

Abstract

Literature examines how women in society function within theirspecific cultures and circumstances to encounter the challenges theyface in life. Despite fragmentation in their lives--like quilt makers, theypiece together the scraps of their existence to form an integrated andcomplete whole. The imagery of the quilt plays a significant role in African American women's writing. The quilt is a narrative deviceessential to the storyteller's technique. As the narrator utilises the quilt intelling the story, it becomes an integral part of the fiction. It functions asan intrinsic component of narrative and plot and not as a helpfulmetaphor. For Alice Walker, the writing process is similar to the art ofquilting, which necessitates assembling various patches belonging todifferent textures and transference from one narrative space intoanother. Accordingly, the most significant feature of African Americanquilts is their "promise of creating unity among disparate elements, ofestablishing connectedness amid fragmentation" (Kelley 176).