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The Literary Memoir As Historical Source Material University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2004 Remembering Jim Crow : the literary memoir as historical source material/ Jennifer Jensen Wallach University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Wallach, Jennifer Jensen, "Remembering Jim Crow : the literary memoir as historical source material/" (2004). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 917. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/917 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University ot Massachusetts Amherst Y B R A R REMEMBERING JIM CROW: THE LITERARY MEMOIR AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL A Dissertation Presented by JENNIFER JENSEN WALLACH Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2004 Department of Afro-American Studies © Copyright by Jennifer Jensen Wallach 2004 All Rights Reserved REMEMBERING JIM CROW: THE LITERARY MEMOIR AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL A Dissertation Presented by JENNIFER JENSEN WALLACH Approved as to style and content by: Robert Paul Wolff, Chair Esther M.A. Terry, Member Steven C. Tracy, Member David W. Blight, Member Esther M.A. Terry, Department Head Department of Afro-American Studies DEDICATION For CSB, JCW, and WFP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks to the faculty members of the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts. I have benefited from my exposure to so many disciplinary perspectives and diverse points of view. I would like to thank John Bracey for his suggestions (and lengthy "must read" lists) given during the early stages of this project. I am also grateful to Bill Strickland for his support and blunt, well-reasoned advice (much of which was proffered over Cosmopolitans at the Monkey Bar). I am thankful to each of the individuals who served as members of my dissertation committee: Esther M.A. Terry, Steven C. Tracy, David W. Blight, and Robert Paul Wolff. At the prospectus stage, Esther helped me learn to refine and vigorously defend my ideas. Much of what she has taught me transcends the academic realm. Steve gave me a crash course in literary criticism, and his careful reading of my work challenged me and saved me from more than one embarrassing mistake. David's fine scholarly work has served as an inspiration. He has set a standard that I hope to emulate in my professional life. Finally, I wish to warmly thank my dissertation director Bob Wolff (known affectionately to me as WFP). He has had a tremendous impact on me as both a scholar and as a human being. I am grateful for his support, his guidance, and his friendship. I am also grateful to my friends (and classmates) Rita Reynolds and Andrew Rosa for their friendship and support. I love them both. My mother, Carolyn Briggs, and my husband, Jeremy Wallach, served as tireless proofreaders, as sounding boards, and (all too frequently) as lay therapists. I couldn't have written this without them. ABSTRACT REMEMBERING JIM CROW: THE LITERARY MEMOIR AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL MAY 2004 JENNIFER JENSEN WALLACH, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Robert Paul Wolff This dissertation is a two-fold project. The first half is a methodological examination of how memoirs can be used as instruments of historical understanding. The second half applies this methodology to the study of several memoirs written about life in the American south in the first half of the twentieth century. Memoir is a peculiar genre which straddles the disciplines of literature and history. Currently the field of autobiography studies is dominated by literary critics. However, there is nothing inherent about the genre dictating that this should be the case. This dissertation analyzes memoirs from a historical perspective. I argue that insights drawn from life writing have the potential to greatly enhance our historical understanding. I broach several topics including the problem of defining autobiography, the disciplinary proprietorship of the memoir, the relationship between history and theory, and the linkages between the historical study of memoirs and interdisciplinary conversations about historical memory. I describe the nature of historical reality, arguing that the individual thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and misperceptions of each historical agent are constitutive of the historical reality of a particular moment. Memoirs capture VI the entire universe as it appeared from one acknowledged perspective. Furthermore, skilled, creative writers are especially adept at capturing the complexity of a past moment. Authors of literary memoirs draw on the aesthetic power of literary language and on literary devices such as metaphor and irony to powerfully portray particular historical moments. I apply these ideas to an examination of memoirs about life in the segregated American south. I analyze memoirs written by African Americans, by whites, by men, by women, and by individuals with various political points of views. I find these accounts bear certain similarities to one another but are often strikingly at odds. Different ideas about the psychological impact of segregation, dissimilar characterizations of the black community, and contrary descriptions of the same moment and the same geographical space reveal that there is no singular Jim Crow experience. Historical reality is multi- faceted, and the complexities of individual experiences are best captured in artfully constructed literary memoirs. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION PART I. THEORETICAL INSIGHTS ABOUT THE MEMOIR AS AN INSTRUMENT OF HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING 1 THE . AGE OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND THE ADVENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES 6 2. THE QUESTION OF GENRE 23 3. LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND THE DISCIPLINARY PROPRIETORSHIP OF THE MEMOIR 59 4. MEMORY, HISTORY AND THE INTERPRETATION OF MEMOIRS 86 5. HISTORICAL SUBJECTIVITY AND THE PERSPECTIVAL NATURE OF HISTORICAL REALITY 96 6. LITERARY TECHNIQUES AND AN EXPERIENTIAL UNDERSTANDING OF LIVING IN HISTORY 121 PART II. REMEMBERING JIM CROW: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE USAGE OF LITERARY MEMOIRS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL 7. AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES: RICHARD WRIGHT AND ZORA NEALE HURSTON REMEMBER JIM CROW 151 8. WHITE PERSPECTIVES: THE JIM CROW HISTORICAL MEMORIES OF WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY, LILLIAN SMITH, AND WILLIE MORRIS 212 CONCLUSIONS: "THE MISSISSIPPI THESE YOUNG PEOPLE TALKED OF WAS A VERY DIFFERENT PLACE" 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 viii INTRODUCTION According to William L. Andrews "Autobiography holds a position of priority, indeed many would say preeminence, among the narrative traditions of black America." 1 During the era of slavery, escaped slaves wrote or dictated thousands of first person accounts of the horrors of slavery. Slave narratives not only provided fuel for the cause of abolition, but they also served to assert the humanity of the formerly enslaved. In the century and a half since emancipation, African Americans have continued to construct autobiographies that serve as political tools to fight against racism in its various manifestations. These life writings also present portraits of African American life that defy stereotyped ideas about blackness. Indeed many of the most widely read and critiqued books in the African American literary tradition, ranging from the Narrative of the Life ofFrederick Douglass (1845) to The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), come from the genre of autobiography. The sheer number and quality of these autobiographies makes them a worthy subject of study for the student of African American studies. Life writing also holds a preeminent place in black studies and in other areas of interdisciplinary inquiry because the genre is, in many respects, an interdisciplinary one. Autobiography straddles the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines. It simultaneously purports to be both literature and history. As an interdisciplinary genre, the autobiography demands a criticism that cuts across traditional disciplines. The field of autobiography studies is fertile ground for exploring the nature of interdisciplinary inquiry. ' William L. Andrews, African American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), 1. 1 My interest in African American autobiographies also stems from my own life experiences. An explanation of the genesis of this dissertation requires me to indulge in an autobiographical aside. I am certainly not the only scholar working in the field of autobiography studies to succumb to the easy temptation to base my analysis of life writing in episodes drawn from my own life. However, I don't believe that this is a false starting place. After all, scholarly work cannot ever be completely extricated from the scholar herself. The kinds of things we write, the subjects that attract us, and the theoretical positions that we take are all related in some way to the people we are, the experiences that we have had, and the things we have been exposed to. In deliberately inserting a piece of my
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