Praisesong for the Widow (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Paule Marshall
- First Published: 1983
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The late 1970’s, with flashbacks to the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s
- Setting: Grenada and Carriacou; Brooklyn and North White Plains, New York; South Carolina Sea Islands; Tatem, South Carolina
- Principal Characters: Avatara “Avey” Johnson, Lebert Joseph
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: African Americans
- Locales: New York
The Novel
Praisesong for the Widow traces Avey Johnson’s journey toward self-knowledge, a process involving not only her own personal identity but also her identification with her family, her past, and her African heritage.
The novel begins in the late 1970’s, during Avey Johnson’s third Caribbean cruise. Suddenly she begins to experience an uneasy, unspecified feeling, not quite illness but a “mysterious welling up in her stomach,” “a clogged and swollen feeling.” Two additional occurrences alarm her: First, she does not even recognize herself in...
[The entire page is 3386 words long]
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