Embodied Shame : Uncovering Female Shame in Contemporary Women's Writings

How Does Physical, Emotional, And Sexual Abuse Shape Women's Perceptions Of Their Bodies And Identities? How Are Women's Psyches Affected By The Sexual, Racial, And Cultural Denigration That Occurs When Women's Bodies Are Represented As Defective, Spoiled, Damaged, Or Dirtied? Embodied Shame Skillfully Explores These Questions In The Context Of Recent Writings By North American Women, Contributing To Work In Shame Theory And To Feminist Analyses Of The Intersections Of Theories Of The Body, Affect, Emotions, Narrative, And Trauma. By Examining Popular Contemporary Fictional - And Nonfictional - Texts, Including Alice Munro's Lives Of Girls And Women, Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out Of Carolina, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory, And Lucy Grealy's Autobiography Of A Face, J. Brooks Bouson Illuminates How Deeply Entrenched Bodily Shame Continues To Operate In Contemporary Culture, Even As We Celebrate The Supposed Freeing Of The Female Body From The Social And Cultural Constraints That Have Long Bound It.--jacket. The Humiliations Of The Female Flesh In Alice Munro's Lives Of Girls And Women -- Family Violence, Incest, And White-trash Shame In Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out Of Carolina -- Racial Self-loathing And The Color Complex In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye And Marita Golden's Don't Play In The Sun -- Sexual Shame, Family Honor, And The Mother-daughter Relationship In Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory -- Coming Of Age In A Culture Of Shame In Naomi Wolf's Promiscuities -- Feeling Fat, Fearing Fat In Jenefer Shute's Life-size And Judith Moore's Fat Girl: A True Story -- The Culture Of Appearances And The Socially Invisible And Unattractive Woman In Anita Brookner's Look At Me, Doris Lessing's The Summer Before The Dark, And Fay Weldon's The Life And Loves Of A She-devil -- Gerontophobia And The Cultural Shaming Of The Elderly Woman In May Sarton's As We Are Now And Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel -- Writing The Disfigured And Disabled Body-self In Lucy Grealy's Autobiography Of A Face And Nancy Mairs's Plaintext, Carnal Acts, And Waist-high In The World. J. Brooks Bouson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Title P age......Page 5 Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 1. Introduction......Page 13 PART I. Coming of Age,Coming to Shame: The Parental and Cultural Transmission of Sexual, Racial, and Class Shame......Page 29 2. The Humiliations of the Female Flesh in Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women......Page 31 3. Family Violence, Incest, and White-Trash Shame in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina......Page 47 4. Racial Self-Loathing and the Color Complex inToni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Marita Golden’s Don’t Play in the Sun......Page 65 5. Sexual Shame, Family Honor, and the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory......Page 83 6. Coming of Age in a Culture of Shame in Naomi Wolf’s Promiscuities......Page 99 PART II. Speaking a Kind of Body Language: Shamed Bodies and Spoiled Identities in the Contemporary Culture of Appearances......Page 115 7. Feeling Fat, Fearing Fat in Jenefer Shute’s Life-Size and Judith Moore’s Fat Girl: A True Story......Page 117 8. The Culture of Appearances and the Socially Invisible and Unattractive Woman in Anita Brookner’s Look at Me, Doris Lessing’s The Summer before the Dark, and Fay Weldon’s The Life and Loves of a She-Devil......Page 137 9. Gerontophobia and the Cultural Shaming of the Elderly Woman in May Sarton’s As We Are Now and Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel......Page 159 10. Writing the Disfigured and Disabled Body-Self in Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face and Nancy Mairs’s Plaintext, Carnal Acts, and Waist-High in the World......Page 175 11. In Conclusion......Page 193 Notes......Page 197 Works Cited......Page 219 B......Page 231 D......Page 232 H......Page 233 M......Page 234 S......Page 236 W......Page 237 Y......Page 238