Shelley Fisher Fishkin

Listening to Silences New Essays in Feminist Criticism

Thirty years ago, in a lecture at the Radcliffe Institute, Tillie Olsen first addressed the problem of silences in literature-paving the way for future explorations of the subject, including her landmark work, Silences. The subject of silences and silencing-as fact, as trope, as lens through which to understand literary history-has been central to feminist criticism ever since. In Listening to Silences, a group of distinguished feminist literary critics reevaluates Olsens heritage to reassert, extend, redefine, and question her insights, and to probe the dynamics of silence and silencing as they operate today in literature, criticism, and the academy. The book traces for the first time the genealogy of an important American critical tradition, one that still influences contemporary debates about feminism, multiculturalism, and the literary canon. Contributors to Listening to Silences include Kate Adams, Norma Alarcon, Joanne Braxton, Sharon Zuber, King-Kok Cheung, Constance Coiner, Robin Dizard, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Diana Hume George, Elaine Hedges, Carla Kaplan, Patricia Laurence, Rebecca Mark, Diane Middlebrook, Carla L. Peterson, Lillian Robinson, Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt, Judith L. Sensibar, and Judith Bryant Wittenberg.

Race and the Politics of Memory: Mark Twain and Paul Laurence Dunbar

In an 1899 essay Mark Twain wrote, It would not be possible for a humane and intelligent person to invent a rational excuse for slavery; yet you will remember that in the early days of the emancipation agitation in the North the agitators got but small help or countenance from any one. Argue and plead and pray as they might, they could not break the universal stillness that reigned, from pulpit and press all the way down to the bottom of society – the clammy stillness created and maintained by the lie of silent assertion – the silent assertion … that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop.

Fragments of the Past: Archaeology, History, and the Chinese Railroad Workers of North America

AbstractAlthough the labor of the Chinese workers who built the first transcontinental railroad (and other railroads in the western part of the country) was pivotal to the development of the United States, these workers have never received the scholarly attention they deserve. The incredibly rich work of archaeologists who have studied the thousands of pieces of material culture gathered along western rail lines promises to open vibrant new dimensions of historical recovery of this key chapter in the intertwined social, economic, and political histories of China and the United States.Chouxiàng尽管修建第一条横贯大陆铁路 (以及其它美国西部铁路) 的中国工人为美国的发展立下了汗马功劳, 他们在学术界 从未获得与其成就相称的关注。考古学家现已就西部铁路 沿线上搜集的数以千计的文物进行了研究。他们丰富的研 究成果必将为中美两国之间错综复杂的社会、经济、政治 历史中这一关键篇章开启生动的、崭新的历史维度。

Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African American Voices.

In a piece of controversial research, the author of this treatise offers compelling evidence that the voice of Mark Twains most famous literary creation, Huckleberry Finn, was based on that of a black child whom he met in the early 1870s. By opening up the hitherto neglected impact of African-American voices on American literature to public scrutiny, this work offers a paradigm for innovative criticism that may very well redefine the focus and direction of contemporary debates on multiculturalism.

Black Legacy: America's Hidden Heritage.

Drawing on a vast wealth of evidence - folktales, oral histories, religious rituals, and music - this book explores the pervasive if often unacknowledged influence of African traditions on American life. The result is a bold reinterpretation of American history that disrupts conventional assumptions and turns racial stereotypes inside out. William D. Piersen begins by examining a series of African and African-American oral narratives that interpret the experience of slavery from a distinctly black perspective. Centered on issues of moral truth, these tales bear witness to the meaning and human cost of the slave trade as perceived by those who were its victims. Piersen then analyzes the ways in which enslaved Africans adapted their rich cultural heritage to the new circumstances they were forced to endure. He shows, for example, how they imaginatively - and often aggressively - devised forms of public satire to resist white authority. He traces the transfer of traditional African medical knowledge to the Americas and demonstrates that in antebellum America many black healers were more skilled than their white counterparts. He further shows how African customs helped shape the evolving contours of American culture - particularly in the South - from holiday celebrations, musical traditions, and architectural styles to modes of speech, habits of work, and ways of cooking. The black legacy to America even extended, ironically, to the Ku Klux Klan, whose founders imitated masking traditions handed down from West African secret societies. By reestablishing the forgotten cultural links between Africa and America, this study enriches our understanding of American history and is a powerfultestament to the legacy of African culture in American life.