Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing: From Faulkner to Morrison (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century)

This study discovers how contemporary writers have imagined possible relationships between African American and white women that overcome the stereotypical patterns of racism, using novels and autobiographies and focusing on works by William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman, Audre Lorde, Kaye Gibbons, Elizabeth Cox, Sherley Anne Wiliams, and Toni Morrison Much Feminist Writing Of Recent Decades Has Addressed The Difficulties Of Relating Across Racial Differences. In Women And Race In Contemporary U.s. Writing, Reames Examines Novels And Autobiographies To Discover How Contemporary Writers Have Imagined Possibilities For Relationships Between African American And White Women That Overcome The Stereotypical Patterns Of Racism. Works By William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman, Audre Lorde, Kaye Gibbons, Elizabeth Cox, Sherley Anne Williams, And Toni Morrison Provide Examples Of Sometimes Loving And Often Conflicted Relationships Between Child And Nurse, Employer And Domestic Worker, Political Allies, And Friends. Reames Argues That These Literary Works Show That Meaningful Interracial Relationships Are Possible Only When White Women Recognize Their Racial Privilege. Introduction -- Sisters In Sin: Discourse, Discipline, And Difference In Requiem For A Nun -- The Image Of You, True Or False, Last[s] A Lifetime: Lillian Hellman's Memories Of Black Women -- The Very House Of Difference: Audre Lorde's Autobiographies -- Just This Side Of Colored: Ellen Foster And Night Talk -- Who Can You Friend With, Love With Like That?: Sherley Anne William's Dessa Rose -- A Girl From A Whole Other Race: Toni Morrison's Recitatif, Beloved, And Paradise -- Coda. Getting Past White Women's Fantasies: Living Out Loud. Kelly Lynch Reames. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-27 “Sisters in Sin”: Discourse, Discipline, and Difference in Requiem for a Nun ....Pages 29-48 “The Image of You, True or False, Last[s] a Lifetime”: Lillian Hellman’s Memories of Black Women....Pages 49-72 “The Very House of Difference”: Audre Lorde’s Autobiographies....Pages 73-90 “Just This Side of Colored”: Ellen Foster and Night Talk ....Pages 91-111 “Who Can You Friend With, Love With Like That?”: Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose ....Pages 113-129 “A Girl from a Whole Other Race”: Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Beloved, and Paradise ....Pages 131-156 Coda Getting Past White Women’s Fantasies: Living Out Loud ....Pages 157-160 Back Matter....Pages 161-187 This study looks to novels and autobiographies to discover how contemporary writers have imagined possibilities for relationships between African American and white women that overcome the stereotypical patterns of racism. Works by William Faulkner and Toni Morrison are included in the study