Sista, speak! : Black women kinfolk talk about language and literacy / Sonja L. Lanehart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lanehart, Sonja L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Social conditions.

African American women.

African American women--Education.

Literacy--Social aspects--United States.

Literacy.

African American women--Biography.

African Americans--Race identity.

African Americans.

African Americans--Languages.

Language and culture--United States.

Language and culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The demand of white, affluent society that all Americans should speak, read, and write "proper" English causes many people who are not white and/or middle class to attempt to "talk in a way that feel peculiar to [their] mind," as a character in Alice Walker's The Color Purple puts it. In this book, Sonja Lanehart explores how this valorization of "proper" English has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women—her grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and herself. Through interviews and written statements by each woman, Lanehart draws out the life stories of these women and their attitudes toward and use of language. Making comparisons and contrasts among them, she shows how, even within a single family, differences in age, educational opportunities, and social circumstances can lead to widely different abilities and comfort in using language to navigate daily life. Her research also adds a new dimension to our understanding of African American English, which has been little studied in relation to women.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One. THE NARRATIVES

1. OUR LANGUAGE, OUR SELVES

2. MAYA

3. GRACE

4. REIA

5. DEIDRA

6. SONJA

Part Two. THE ANALYSES

7. MAYA

8. GRACE

9. REIA

10. DEIDRA

11. SONJA

12. THE REST OF THE STORY

Appendix 1. Participants’ Possible Selves Data

Appendix 2. Participants’ Speech Samples Data

Appendix 3. Participants’ Language and Literacy Ideologies Data

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-247) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-79838-5

OCLC:

614991681