Take My Word - Autobiographical Innovations of Ethnic American Working Women

"An exciting, original contribution to American Women's Cultural Studies. . . . Goldman challenges even poststructural views of the author and reminds us how women found ways to subvert traditional scripts in representing themselves and their relation to their cultures."—Barbara T. Christian, author of Black Feminist Criticism

"Always attentive to historical and discursive contexts, Goldman looks for the pressure points of these nontraditional narratives where the discursive call to speak as a representative of a collectivity—what she describes as the ethnographic imperative—gives way to the impulse to 'self-distinction'—what she describes as the individualizing logic of self-possession. In doing so she compels theorists of autobiography to rethink the elasticities of autobiographical utterance by means of a negotiable 'I'-'We' continuum. She compels us, that is, to rethink conventional understandings of genre. Her argument is incisive, her readings nuanced, her prose lucid."—Sidonie Smith, author of Subjectivity, Identity, and the Body: Women's Autobiographical Practices in the Twentieth Century

About the author

Anne E. Goldman is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Summary

In a critique of traditional approaches to autobiography, this text demonstrates that ethnic women can and do speak for themselves, even in the most unlikely contexts. It illustrates how American women have asserted their ethnic voices despite the interests of publishers and readers.

Product details

• Authors: Anne E. Goldman
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.02.1996
• EAN: 9780520200975
• ISBN: 978-0-520-20097-5
• No. of pages: 274
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, Ethnic Studies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, Autobiography: general, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist, Feminism & feminist theory, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: general, Feminism and feminist theory, Autobiography: philosophy and social sciences, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural & Regional