Don't Worry, Be Happy

The book offers introductory information on the topic of the history of the African American and black Caribbean literature written by women writers and their contributions to broadening the literary canon. The main part of the book is an analysis of the four selected novels, namely Sula (1973) by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, Lucy (1990) by Jamaica Kincaid, and Daughters (1991) by Paule Marshall. In the particular chapters, the protagonists' position within their communities is discussed as well as their relationships with other characters, especially in the form of female bonding; the motif of journey is also examined. A detailed insight into the characters' more or less successful voyages to selfhood in their quests for self-definition presents the key parts of the analyses, pointing at the importance of the black female body which used to be portrayed rather as a source of entrapment in the past. The book looks critically at the particular visions of the selected women writers in their trying to depict unforgettable multi-dimensional female characters in the last decades of the 20th century.