JOURNEY BACK- REINTEGRATION OF SELF AND COMMUNITY IN PAULE MARSHALL’S NOVELS (Pages 23-28) by Ms. K. Ramajeyalakshmi in THE ENGLISH INDIA / ISSN: 2321-1172 (Online); 2347-2634 (Print)

Paule Marshall, an African-American writer, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her identity as a Caribbean novelist and short story writer arises from a historical as well as social context. Since her visit to the Caribbean at the age of nine, Marshall has been immersed in the cultural life of both African -American and African -Caribbean literature. She is also a central figure in developing the Caribbean women’s literary tradition. Black woman have been silenced and kept ignorant by the dominant culture. It is a need for the Black women writers to focus on the problems of Black women in their literary art. Marshall believes that African myth and legends are critical to black peoples understanding of themselves and central to her writing process. As Barbara T.Christian and others have argued all of Paule Marshall’s fiction demonstrates her conviction that African- based cultural and historical rituals have the power to resist centuries of loss and Psychological colonization. The present paper focuses on characters routes and roots to understand their wholeness.aule Marshall, an African-American writer, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her identity as a Caribbean novelist and short story writer arises from a historical as well as social context. Since her visit to the Caribbean at the age of nine, Marshall has been immersed in the cultural life of both African -American and African -Caribbean literature. She is also a central figure in developing the Caribbean women’s literary tradition. Black woman have been silenced and kept ignorant by the dominant culture. It is a need for the Black women writers to focus on the problems of Black women in their literary art. Marshall believes that African myth and legends are critical to black peoples understanding of themselves and central to her writing process. As Barbara T.Christian and others have argued all of Paule Marshall’s fiction demonstrates her conviction that African- based cultural and historical rituals have the power to resist centuries of loss and Psychological colonization. The present paper focuses on characters routes and roots to understand their wholeness.Keywords: Journey, Myth, Dream, Roots, culture etc.