![]() Monica Coleman, a postmodern process womanist theologian puts a contemporary spin on the work of Katie G. The literature of Black women articulates both the values and dreams of Black folk. I argue for Gwendolyn Brooks' 1953 novella, Maud Martha, as one such text because it unfolds as a study in one woman’s process of awareness and as a reflection of the Black community’s spiritual and ethical development. Thus, Black women’s fiction represents a canon of moral and spiritual thought and thereby constitutes sacred texts. ![]() ![]() ![]() Cannon emphasizes that such wisdom does not rescue Black women from the hardships of their realities “rather, it exposes those ethical assumptions that are inimical to the ongoing survival of Black womanhood” and thereby exposes the values, or fundamental ethical concerns, of Black women (60). ![]() Black female writers, then, labor to chronicle the moral wisdom derived from their enslaved ancestors’ experiences of persistent, violent repression and invisibility as well as their triumphs, courage, and resilience. BLACK WOMEN’S EXPRESSIVITY & THE CASE OF MAUD MARTHAįrom customs of storytelling within the slave quarters of enslaved Blacks to the prolific literary output of writers during the 1970s and 1980s, Black women have long been deploying narratives to embody their values because the narratives give voice to their shared experiences of, not only “hard physical labor,” but social and emotional labor as well. ![]()
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