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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Eliminating Barriers and Expanding Borders through White Trash Literature: A Study of Dorothy Allison, Connie May Fowler, and Kaye Gibbons Rebecca Harshman Belcher APPROVAL: Ia/ * I ($ Major Professor Dr. Will Brantley Reader i Dr. Angela Hague Chair of Department of English/ Dr. William J. Connelly [ ) o r * M - X ___ Dean of the Graduate College J/ Donald L. Curry, Dean Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9992327 Copyright 2001 by Belcher, Rebecca Harshman All rights reserved. UMI* UMI Microform9992327 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I wish to thank my dissertation advisor, Dr. Will Brantley, who provided just the right mix of praise and critical advice to the writing process. Without his help, this paper would not have the structure that it does. In addition, I thank Dr. Angela Hague, whose second reading enlivened both content and style of this paper. Dr. Allen Hibbard, director of graduate studies in the Department of English, also deserves my thanks, both for his constant support and for his unflagging effort for all of us graduate students. Among my family members, I must acknowledge the constant support of my siblings, Bill, Ramona, and Judy, and my nephew, Marc Harshman, whose authorial connections in West Virginia were quite helpful. Besides their moral support, I want to recognize the importance of suggestions offered by Dr. Ruth McDowell Cook, Dr. Shirlee McGuire, and Donna Gunnoe. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the strong support and assistance of both my department chair, Dr. Judith Whitis, and the academic dean of our university, Dr. Gary Streit. I have great students who have shown genuine interest in my topic and who have understood my occasional absence while I was working on this paper. I thank all of my students at Olivet Nazarene University for their support. Finally, my deepest thanks goes to my three sons who have had to tolerate the whole process of graduate school and dissertation writing. Thanks, Jonathan, David, and Geoffrey, for sacrificing a clean home, home-cooked meals, and time to talk while I was in the midst of this program. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Eliminating Barriers and Expanding Borders through White Trash Literature: A Study of Dorothy Allison, Connie May Fowler, and Kaye Gibbons Dissertation Abstract by Rebecca Harshman Belcher The phenomenon of whiteness studies seeks to eradicate racism by creating a definition of the white race based upon its distinctive characteristics rather than on what it is not. As this goal is reached, the literary canon will replace exclusionary paradigms with all-inclusive borders that recognize racial distinctiveness without bigotry, and the white race will be seen as providing only one of many perspectives from which a writer may view the world. While sociologists, cultural studies experts, and demographers have produced studies that expose the outdated norm of whiteness, southern fictional writers such as Dorothy Allison, Connie May Fowler, and Kaye Gibbons have deconstructed whiteness through characters who live in a white subculture. This study focuses on Dorothy Allison’sBastard Out o f Carolina (1992), Connie May Fowler’sBefore Women Had Wings (1996), and Kaye Gibbons’sEllen Foster (1987) as literary works that approach the subject of white trash with honesty, depth, and sympathy. Each novel employs the narrative point of view of a young girl, the physical and psychological realities of abuse, and the appearance of the marginalized “other” as a savior for the abused child. The problem o f whiteness is revealed through novels that are peopled with characters who embody all of the physical stereotypes of white trash and yet who elicit the readers’ empathy. Identification with the characters breaks down the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. barrier of racial difference between white trash and other whites and between white trash and people of color. To name part of the white race as an “other” is either to racialize it or to embrace white trash as a definitive part of what has been called whiteness. In the works of Allison, Fowler, and Gibbons, whiteness serves as more than background; it is examined and differentiated. In the process, each author creates permeable and accessible borders within the diverse cultures of America. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Introduction: I am an “Other”—Do I Belong in This Discussion?....................................1 Chapter 1: Who Wants to Live in a Trailer?......................................................................48 Chapter 2: What Makes a Girl Grow Up Too Soon?......................................................... 83 Chapter 3: How Many Ways Can You Spell “Abuse”?....................................................117 Chapter 4: Who Will “Rescue the Perishing”? .................................................................. 148 Conclusion: Whom Do We Add N ow.............................................................................. ? 174 Works Cited..........................................................................................................................187 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 Introduction: I am an “Other”—Do I Belong in This Discussion? For many writers. the border has come to symbolize the plural, syncretic, sometimes conflicted nature o f the nation as a whole. (Clayton 109) Such borderlands should be regarded not as analytically empty transition zones but as sites o f creative cultural production that require investigation. (Rosaldo 207-208) The word “borders” is becoming the newest metaphor in cultural studies in the United States, as cultural theorists such as Jay ClaytonThe in Pleasures o f Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory (1993) and anthropologists such as Renato RosaldoCulture in and Truth: The Remaking o f Social Analysis (19S9) use the term to describe the phenomenon of plurality which characterizes how America now sees itself.1 No longer the “melting pot,” an amalgamation of diverse backgrounds, America is a “salad bowl,” a conglomeration of diverse cultures. Traditionally, the melting pot theory represented a country unified in its beliefs and passions. In reality, however, the beliefs and passions reflected the thinking of the privileged, who were most often white and male. Whether consciously or not, this group of privileged ones did much to create barriers to reject any voices not agreeing with its prevailing philosophy. Beginning in the 1960s with the advances of civil rights in the political realm and the theories of deconstruction in the literary realm, however, the barriers began to be removed, being replaced by these borders of which Clayton and Rosaldo speak. In the wake of Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive and explosive ideas of valuing the unprivileged, the unsaid, the unrecognized, the space between the lines, new texts are Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. being accepted in a spirit of egalitarian enterprise. The very basis or foundation of his theory seems to reside in a word like “acceptance.” Instead of creating an exclusive canon which operates from the notion of standards which separate, criticize, or simply neglect, a theory such as Derrida’s