Category: Literature

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+ african american literature, alice walker, american literature, ernest j gaines, julius lester, Literature, look out whitey!, louisiana literature, peter burke, southern literature, the autobiography of miss jane pittman, twentieth century literature, varieties of cultural history

“Miss Jane is not in them”: Voices in Historical Narratives

by Unknown's avatar

Over the past couple of posts, I have written about the role of history and literature in countering prevailing myths about the past and the present. Today, I want to continue that discussion by looking at a couple of scene from Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971). On Thursday, I will finish this series by looking at a section from … Read More “Miss Jane is not in them”: Voices in Historical Narratives

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+ american literature, blues for mister charlie, huck finn, interracial intimacy, interracial marriage, lillian e smith, Literature, of love and dust

Dirt in Lillian E. Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

by Unknown's avatar

Lillian E. Smith’s Strange Fruit (1944) has been on my shelf for a few years now. Right now, it sits back in the United States, untouched and locked away in a box in a storage room. When I purchased it, at a book sale, it was one of those books that I had heard about and that looked relevant to my research. I bought … Read More Dirt in Lillian E. Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

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+ african american literature, american literature, Americans Want to Believe Jobs are the Solution to Poverty. They're Not, caribbean literature, drown, Junot Díaz, Literature, matthew desmond, yunior

Education and Poverty in Junot Díaz’s “Drown”

by Unknown's avatar

Reading Junot Díaz’s “Drown,” my mind constantly kept going back to texts such as Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and James Baldwin who said, “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” Along with these items, I also thought about the power structures that keep Yunior de Las Casas in subjugation and essentially strip … Read More Education and Poverty in Junot Díaz’s “Drown”

+ african american literature, american dream, american literature, big walter younger, lena younger, liesl tommy, Literature, lorraine hansberry, ruth younger, walter lee younger

Big Walter in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”

by Unknown's avatar

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, one character hovers over the entire play as a specter of the past. This character is Big Walter, Lena’s husband and Benetha and Walter Lee’s father. Even though he does not appear on stage in the script, he exists as an important part of the narrative. His death, which we do not see, causes the action … Read More Big Walter in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”

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+ american literature, charlotte perkins gilman, gothic literature, Literature, nineteenth century literature, republican motherhood, the housewife, The Yellow Wall-Paper

Republican Motherhood and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper”

by Unknown's avatar

A few items stuck out as I prepared to teach Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” this semester. The first aspect of the short story that caught my attention was the multiple uses of specific words or forms of specific words: creep (20), sun (8), crawl (4), and skulk (1). Each of these words, except for sun, has a connotation of hiding or concealment. … Read More Republican Motherhood and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper”

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