Granny midwives and Black women writers : double-dutched readings / Valerie Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Valerie, 1950- author.

Contributor:

Honeywood, Varnette P., cover artist.

Routledge (Firm), publisher.

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American prose literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American prose literature--African American authors.

American prose literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

American prose literature--Women authors.

Women and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Women and literature.

African American midwives.

History.

United States.

African American midwives in literature.

African American women in literature.

African American midwives--History.

African Americans in literature.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copies)

Physical Description:

xii pages, 2 unnumbered pages, 202 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 1996.

Summary:

Midwives, women healers and root workers have been central figures in the African American folk traditions. Particularly in Black communities in the rural south, these women served vital social, cultural and political functions. It was believed that they possessed magical powers: they negotiated the barrier between life and death and were often regarded as the "knower" in a community. Today even as medical science has discredited or superseded their power, granny midwives have resurfaced as pivotal characters in the narratives of contemporary African American literature. "Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers" examines the lives of "real" granny midwives and other healers--through oral narratives, ethnographic research and documentation--and considers them in tandem with their fictional counterparts in the work of Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker and others.

Contents:

Introduction. Sistah Conjurer: Text and Context

Western Science and Folk Medicine: White Men's Forceps and Black Womens Forces

Literary Recovery of the Granny: The Body, the Mind, the Material

God and the Grannies: Testifying Theory

Women Who Work Magic: Literary and Cultural Icons-Song of Solomon

Conjure Discourse in Conjuring Communities: Mama Day and Fieldwork in Paradise.

Notes:

"Copyright ©1996 by Routledge"--verso of title page.

"Cover design: Cynthia Dunne. Cover illustration by Varnette P. Honeywood."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [184]-197) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copies presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

Banks Collection copy 2 hardcover without dustjacket.

ISBN:

0415915074

0415915082

OCLC:

35042963