Listening for a life
Subtitle: a dialogic ethnography of Bessie Eldreth through her songs and stories
By: Patricia Sawin
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Logan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
Subjects: Eldreth, Bessie Mae, -- 1913-; Eldreth, Bessie Mae, -- 1913- -- Interviews; Women folklorists -- Appalachian Region -- Biography; Women storytellers -- Appalachian Region -- Biography; Folk singers -- Appalachian Region -- Biography; Folklore -- Appalachian Region; Folk music -- Appalachian Region; Appalachian Region -- Social life and customs
Genres: Interviews; Biography
Description: "In one sense a folklorist's portrayal of a folk artist's life and art, Listening for a Life is equally a rethinking of the processes involved in such work, not only in how the folklorist conveys her subject but in how her subject constitutes and performs herself into being through dialogue with others: those present, those once present, those imagined and anticipated. Drawing on Bahktinian and feminist theory, Sawin pushes forward our understanding of the interactive roles of ethnographer and subject and in the process gives us a deeper understanding of folk singer and storyteller Bessie Eldreth and her greatest art, herself."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-240) and index
Table of contents: title: Introduction : dialogism and subjectivity; title: "That was before I ever left home" : complex accounts of a simple childhood; title: "If you had to work as hard as I did, it would kill you" : work, narrative, and self-definition; title: "I said, 'don't you do it'" : tracing development as an empowered speaker through reported speech in narrative; title: "He never did say anything about my dreams that would worry me after that" : negotiating gender and power in ghost stories; title: "I'm a bad one to go pulling jokes on people" : practical joking as a problematic vehicle for oppositional self-definition; title: "My singing is my life" : repertoire and performance; title: Epilogue