Preface // Acknowledgments // Book I From Stereotype to Character // 1. Shadows Uplifted // 2. The Rise and Fall of the Proper Mulatta // 3. Ordinary Women: The Tone of the Commonplace // Book II A Promise Song 75 // 4. Sculpture and Space: The Interdependency of Character and Culture in the Novels of Paule Marshall 80 // 5. The Contemporary Fables of Toni Morrison 137 // 6. Novels for Everyday Use: The Novels of Alice Walker 180 // 7. Pass It On 239 // Notes // Bibliography // Index