Broken Silences : Interviews with Black and White Women Writers / / ed. by Shirley Jordan.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jordan, Shirley, Editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, [1993]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

From Publishers Weekly In these 20 interviews with women writers of fiction, Jordan, who teaches at Hampton University in Virginia, attempts to plumb the relations between black and white women in fiction and in life, and to explore the creative process. Although the book suffers from lengthy discussions of somewhat obscure work, the interviewees, most of whom have portrayed female characters of a race other than their own, offer intriguing, often conflicting observations about the primacy of race, gender or class. Kaye Gibbons ( Ellen Foster ) suggests that rural locations offer commonality to black and white Southern women; Marita Golden ( Long Distance Life ) observes that white writers emphasize female beauty while black writers focus on character. This book may be a useful supplement to literature courses. From Library Journal The message derived from the candid and articulate women interviewed here is, as Belva Plain states, "you learn as you live together." Editor Jordan (Hampton Univ., Virginia) has opened a dialog on writing and race relations by publishing these interviews with 20 significant contemporary black and white women writers, from Alice Childress and Joyce Carol Oates to Mildred Pitts Walker. The substance of these writers' thoughts is that the commonality of women's experience informs the genuine portrayal of a character as much as does the writer's understanding of her blackness or whiteness. This special book, so different from others that examine the writing process, is likely to stimulate dialog among women and to provoke serious study of many excellent women writers working today. Recommended for all collections supporting the study of literature, women's studies, and race relations.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TINA McELROY ANSA

ALICE CHILDRESS

LUCILLE CLIFTON

ELLEN DOUGLAS

KAYE GIBBONS

MARITA GOLDEN

SHIRLEY ANN GRAU

JOSEPHINE HUMPHREYS

JILL McCORKLE

JOYCE CAROL OATES

GRACE PALEY

ELAINE PERRY

BELVA PLAIN

EUGENIA PRICE

DORI SANDERS

OUIDA SEBESTYEN

CYNTHIA VOIGT

MILDRED PITTS WALTER

SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS

RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)

ISBN:

0-8135-6806-4