From Mammies to Militants : Domestics in Black American Literature from Charles Chesnutt to Toni Morrison / Trudier Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Trudier, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women in literature.

African Americans--Intellectual life--20th century.

African Americans.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

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

Household employees in literature.

Race relations in literature.

Women in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Welfare queen, hot momma, unwed mother: these stereotypes of Black women share their historical conception in the image of the Black woman as domestic. Focusing on the issue of stereotypes, the new edition of Trudier Harris's classic 1982 study From Mammies to Militants examines the position of the domestic in Black American literature with a new afterword bringing her analysis into the present. From Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Black writers, some of whom worked as maids themselves, have manipulated the stereotype in a strategic way as a figure to comment on Black-white relations or dramatize the conflicts of the Black protagonists. In fact, the characters themselves, like real-life maids, often use the stereotype to their advantage or to trick their oppressors. Harris combines folkloristic, sociological, historical, and psychological analyses with literary ones, drawing on her own interviews with Black women who worked as domestics. She explores the differences between Northern and Southern maids and between "mammy" and "militant." Her invaluable book provides a sweeping exploration of Black American writers of the twentieth century, with extended discussion of works by Charles Chesnutt, Kristin Hunter, Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Ann Petry, William Melvin Kelley, Alice Childress, John A. Williams, Douglas Turner Ward, Barbara Woods, Ted Shine, and Ed Bullins. Often privileging political statements over realistic characterization in the design of their texts, the authors in Harris's study urged Black Americans to take action to change their powerless conditions, politely if possible, violently if necessary. Through their commitment to improving the conditions of Black people in America, these writers demonstrate the connectedness of art and politics. In her new afterword, "From Militants to Movie Stars," Harris looks at domestic workers in African American literature since the original publication of her book in 1982. Exploring five subsequent literary treatments of Black domestic workers from Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying to Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Harris tracks how the landscape of representation of domestic workers has broken with tradition and continues to transform into something entirely new"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter I. On Maids: Historical Background and General Characteristics

Chapter II. On Southern and Northern Maids: Geography, Mammies, and Militants

Chapter III. The Maid as Southern and Northern Mammy

Chapter IV. An Anomaly in Southern Territory

Chapter V. Northern Maids: Stepping toward Militancy

Chapter VI. Beyond the Uniform

Chapter VII. The Iconoclasts

Chapter VIII. The Militants

Afterword

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780817361518

0817361510

9780817394646

0817394648