Review of Gina Wisker's “Post-Colonial and African American Women’s Writing: A Critical Introduction” (Houndmills: Macmillan, 2000)

Abstract

In this book, Gina Wisker attempts to bring together two areas of criticism and fiction which have by now been widely but separately discussed, namely African-American and Post-Colonial women's writing. Their juxtapositon and analysis along the lines of gender and patriarchal oppression have encountered strong opposition. This criticism points to the dangers of erasing the differences existing between, for example, ethnic groups in the United States and Great Britain and people in formerly colonized regions such as the Caribbean, India, or Australia. Therefore, it is no surprise that Gina Wisker uses much of her introduction to justify this "bringing together [of] overlapping areas of study - post-colonialism and African American, with the focus on women" (1) by arguing that "[s]ilencing and subordination have been a shared experience for colonial and African American peoples, and for women in particular. Speaking out and back in one's own terms is a shared development" (3). Wisker identifies as common interests the exploration of "family relationships, mothering, and motherhood, the role of women in family and economic life, and a search for identity with all the complexities of race, religion, sexual choice, myth, family position, unique experiences" (32).