It takes a village: Twentieth Century black women's fiction and the spiritual apprenticeship narrative

Abstract

This dissertation looks at nine works by contemporary black women writers and argues that the relationships between the major characters in the text reflect and emphasize the importance of mentoring bonds in black communities. More importantly, the project argues that by critically exploring this relationship we can come come to understand more about coming of narratives written by black women writers. These works suggest that there is a marked difference in the way that black people, black women in particular, mature, become successfully integrated into society, and deal with personal and communal crises.