Negotiating a perilous empowerment
Subtitle: Appalachian women's literacies
By: by Erica Abrams Locklear
Series: Series in race, ethnicity, and gender in Appalachia
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9780821419656
Subjects: In literature; History and criticism; Women in literature; Sex role in literature; Literacy in literature; American literature; Women
Description: Those who advocate literacy sometimes ignore an important fact--that newly acquired literacies, although empowering, can create identity conflicts, especially for Appalachian women. In Negotiating a perilous empowerment, Erica Abrams Locklear explores these conflicts by focusing on central female characters in the works of Harriette Simpson Arnow, Linda Scott DeRosier, Denise Giardina, and Lee Smith. She shows how these authors deftly overturn stereotypes of an illiterate Appalachia by creating highly literate characters, women who not only cherish the power of words but also push the boundaries of what literacy means. --Book cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Appalachia on our pages: situating Appalachian literacy and literary analysis; title: Shaping biscuit dough and rolling out steel: responding to literacy commodification in The dollmaker; title: Narrating socialization: Linda Scott Derosier's memoirs; title: "Overcoming" backgrounds: competing discourses in The unquiet earth; title: Invasion of the mountain teachers: literacy campaigns and conflicts in Lee Smith's work.