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Worrying the line : black women writers, lineage, and literary tradition / Cheryl A. Wall.

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For blues musicians, "worrying the line" is the technique of breaking up a phrase by changing pitch, adding a shout, or repeating words in order to emphasize, clarify, or subvert a moment in a song. Cheryl A. Wall applies this term to fiction and nonfiction writing by African American wome...

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Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full Text (via Internet Archive)
Main Author: Wall, Cheryl A.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©2005.
Series:Gender & American culture.
Subjects:
American fiction > African American authors > History and criticism.
American fiction > Women authors > History and criticism.
American fiction > 20th century > History and criticism.
Domestic fiction, American > History and criticism.
American prose literature > History and criticism.
African American women > Intellectual life.
African American families in literature.
Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Genealogy in literature.
Kinship in literature.
Families in literature.
American fiction.
American fiction > African American authors.
American fiction > Women authors.
American prose literature.
Domestic fiction, American.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Reconstructing lineage, revising tradition in Song of Solomon and Zami
  • On the line to Dahomey : charting Generations
  • Recollections of kin : Beloved and The black book
  • Trouble in mind : blues and history in Corregidora
  • Writing beyond the blues : The color purple
  • Extending the line : from Sula to Mama day
  • Bare bones and silken threads : lineage and literary tradition in Praisesong for the widow
  • In search of our mothers' gardens and our fathers' (real) estate : Alice Walker, essayist
  • Epilogue : moving on down the line ..

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