Insights of Feminist Epistemology in Some Selected Novels of Alice Walker

Alice Walker as a radical feminist presented the issues related to Gender feminism through articulation of protagonists highlighting the racial and gender inequality. The feminist epistemology theory is applied which believes that knowledge claims are made from nowhere and are universally valid. African women took surface knowledge of American society and gained superior knowledge of human potential. Alice Walker’s various protagonists Meridian, Celie, Lissie and Tashi signify the situated knowers theory. They articulated their sufferings and attaining their own world of peace by changing the economic, political and moral status with love around them. Alice Walker deals with female consciousness through various thematic motifs. The motifs are regeneration of self, exploration of ethics by preserving African culture and last motif is to raise voice against sexual politics. Walker through her selected novels tried to document the anguish, pain and inferiority that black women were subjected. In the end of selected novels for study these protagonists explore their journey of loneliness, oppression, guilt and self-doubt towards self-acceptance, empowerment and love. Alice Walker as a situated knower advocated for equal rights and believes that freedom, education and responsibility tent to develop a woman into a noble woman. Application of feminist epistemology theory justifies Walker’s optimism that the game is not lost as long as one plays it with the belief that it can be won.