1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780327303321

Autore

Lanehart Sonja L

Titolo

Sista, Speak! [[electronic resource] ] : Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy / / Sonja L. Lanehart

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, : University of Texas Press, 2002

ISBN

0-292-79838-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (265 p.)

Classificazione

MS 3000

Disciplina

305.48/896073

Soggetti

Language and culture - United States

African Americans - Languages

African Americans - Race identity

African American women

Literacy - Social aspects - United States

African American women - Education

African American women - Social conditions

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-247) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One. THE NARRATIVES -- 1. OUR LANGUAGE, OUR SELVES -- 2. MAYA -- 3. GRACE -- 4. REIA -- 5. DEIDRA -- 6. SONJA -- Part Two. THE ANALYSES -- 7. MAYA -- 8. GRACE -- 9. REIA -- 10. DEIDRA -- 11. SONJA -- 12. THE REST OF THE STORY -- Appendix 1. Participants’ Possible Selves Data -- Appendix 2. Participants’ Speech Samples Data -- Appendix 3. Participants’ Language and Literacy Ideologies Data -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The demand of white, affluent society that all Americans should speak, read, and write "proper" English causes many people who are not white and/or middle class to attempt to "talk in a way that feel peculiar to [their] mind," as a character in Alice Walker's The Color Purple puts it. In this book, Sonja Lanehart explores how this valorization of "proper" English has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women—her grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and herself. Through interviews and written



statements by each woman, Lanehart draws out the life stories of these women and their attitudes toward and use of language. Making comparisons and contrasts among them, she shows how, even within a single family, differences in age, educational opportunities, and social circumstances can lead to widely different abilities and comfort in using language to navigate daily life. Her research also adds a new dimension to our understanding of African American English, which has been little studied in relation to women.