Memory, meaning, and resistance : reflecting on oral history and women at the margins / Fran Leeper Buss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buss, Fran Leeper, 1942- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--United States--Biography.

Women.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 210 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, MI : University of Michigan Press, [2017]

Summary:

Fran Leeper Buss, a former welfare recipient who earned a PhD in history and became a pioneer in the field of oral history, has for forty years dedicated herself to the goal of collecting the stories of marginal and working-class U.S. women. Memory, Meaning, and Resistance is based on over 100 oral histories gathered from women from a variety of racial, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds, including a traditionalMexican American midwife, a Latina poet and organizer for the United Farm Workers, and an African American union and freedom movement organizer. Buss now analyzes this body of work, identifying common themes in women's lives and resistance that unite the oral histories she has gathered. From the beginning, her work has shed light on the inseparable, compounding effects of gender, race, ethnicity, and class on women's lives-what is now commonly called intersectionality. Memory, Meaning, and Resistance is structured thematically, with each chapter analyzing a concept that runs through the oral histories, e.g., agency, activism, religion. The result is a testament to women's individual and collective strength, and an invaluable guide for students and researchers, on how to effectively and sensitively conduct oral histories that observe, record, recount, and analyze women's life stories.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Situated locations : eight girls, trying to have a boy

Agency : god gave you a big mouth

Memory construction : since daddy made God die

Interrelationships : the third testament

Meaning : the footprints of our lives

Knowledge from below : we left our berries to rot

Activism and social movements : a brown statue of liberty

Activism and spirituality : like a conversion

Conclusion

Epilogue

Appendix: profiles of the women mentioned

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780472053599

0472053590

9780472073597

0472073591

OCLC:

985693913