This paper is an examination of the representation of black female identity, experience and thinking. The following black feminist novels will be examined; The Darkest Child (2004) by Delores Phillips, The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison, The Help (2009) by Kathryn Stockett and lastly, The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker. This examination will be done through black feminist theory by Patricia Hill Collins and bell hooks, alongside theory on representation, identity and politics of emotions. Our scope of analysis is to examine the notion of black feminism within fiction and theory. When referring to black feminism, it primarily concerns three key elements, namely black feminist thinking, black female experience and black female identity. These terms will work as focal points in our project as we intend to analyze how they can be understood as well as how they are represented in our chosen theory and fiction. By equating theory with fiction, we aim to stress their individual strengths and advantages as well as to discuss their unifying significance.
Within each analysis, intersectionality will function as the primary tool to address the different intersecting points of oppression towards the main characters, and we have herby emphasized how the novels individually express race, class and gender, and in some analyses included heterosexuality and ableism as well. Furthermore, and based on the theoretical accounts, the main characters’ construction of black female identity and management of empowerment will be analyzed. There will be made thorough analyses on characteristics of each of the main characters in order to enhance their different representations of black female consciousness. Hereafter, we use the section on discussion to compare and underline the differences between the. To do this, we focus on authorship as means of authenticity, we discuss relationality as crucial to the characters’ molding of black female identity, and we discuss representation in prolongation of the creation of identity to establish differences between fiction and theory and what they each provide to the notion of black feminism. With this, the theoretical foundation will serve as both the skeleton to analyzing the novels, but also figure as an independent element across from the novels, in order to discuss each their significance within and approach to the black feminist movement. Conclusively, our examinations become a demonstration of how black feminist theory and fiction both serve to address and utilize similar thematics in order to articulate black women’s perspectives and to advocate their political and social situation in America. These thematics then, are employed and addressed within different contexts and on respective epistemological grounds.