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Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. 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. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 3 0 0 North Z eeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9605208 When literacies converge; The personal and political dimensions of reading narrative Greer, Jane, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1994 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106 -W IiENi^m^<2^£^S^QN¥ERQEJEIEJPERS0NAL AND POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF READING NARRATIVE DISSERTAnON Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Jane Greer, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1994 Dissertation Committee: Approved by James Phelan Andrea Lunsford __ Adviser Suellynn Duffey Department of English ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank the student who appears in this dissertation as “Booker.” I view his willingness to share himself and his writing as a most generous gift. This dissertation, and indeed my entire program of graduate studies, would never have been completed without the sustaining kindness and support of family and friends. My mom’s quietly extraordinary strength has been and always will be an inspiration to me. The long-distance laughter I have shared with my two best friends in the world-Julie Foster and Lynne Farrisee-has kept me sane over the past six years and especially during the completion of this project. And special thanks go to the graduate students who have been my office mates in Denney Hall. In particular, Mike “Pookie” Ritchie’s seemingly limitless tolerance for silliness and Diane Chambers’ level-headed advice and balanced perspective have helped me more than I think they realize. At different points during my graduate studies, I have benefited from the personal and professional generosity of Professors Kay Halasek and Kitty Locker, and I very much appreciate their help. Professors Andrea Lunsford and Suellynn Duffey have offered me invaluable suggestions as I worked through this project. Their insightful and patient readings of the various drafts of this dissertation have helped me improve not only this text but have, in a broader sense, pushed me to become a better reader, writer, thinker, and teacher. And finally, I would like to thank Professor Jim Phelan. Even an extensive, richly detailed, concrete, and particularized account of the ways in which he has served as my adviser for the past five years could only begin to capture the wisdom and patience he has demonstrated. His gentle encouragement and sound advice have helped me immensely, and for that I am deeply grateful. u VTTA October 1, 1964 ................................................................. Bom - Chillicothe, Ohio 1986 ................................................................................... B.A., Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana 1990 ................................................................................... M.A., Department of English, Ohio State University 1988-Present ...................................................................... Graduate Teaching/Research Associate, Department of English, Ohio State University Publications “Beyond the Group Project: A Blueprint for a Collaborative Writing Course.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication. 6 (1992): 99-115. With Kelly Belanger. Instructor’s Resources to accompany Business and Administrative Communication, 2nd ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1992. With Kitty O. Locker, Kelly Belanger, Ruth Hendrickson, and Jayne Moneysmith. Fields of Study Major Field: English Reader-Oriented Rhetorical & Narrative Theory Professor James Phelan Literacy Studies Professor Andrea Lunsford Composition Studies Professor Suellynn Duffey Professor E. Kay Halasek Professor Kitty Locker Twentieth Century Literature Professor Walter Davis lU TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................ ii VTTA.................................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER PAGE I. WHEN LITERACIES CONVERGE; AN INTRODUCTION 1 II. A BASIC WRITER, HENRY JAMES, AND THE LIMITS OF AUTHORIAL READING.................................................................... 27 Authorial Reading, A Basic Writer, and the Perpetuation of Academic Hierarchies .................................................................... 31 Moving With/Against/Alongside the “Master”: Authorial Reading and The Wings o f the D o v e.............................................................. 56 III. DETAILED READINGS/READING DETAILS: LITERACY AND CLASS IN WHARTON'S THE AGE OF INNOCENCE AND LE SUEUR’S THE G IR L ................................................................ 79 ‘Tyrannical Trifles”; The Details of Life and Literacy in The Age of Innocence........................................................................ 82 “Everyone is Important”: Detailing Multiple Voices in The G ir l............................................................................................... 101 IV. BEYOND OPPOSmONALTIY: GENDER AND READING IN GATHER’S LUCY GAYHEARTNND HEMINGWAY’S A FAREWELL TO ARM S .......................................................................... 122 “A Slip of a Girl in Boy’s Overalls”: Lucy Gayheart and the Construction of Gender ..................................................................... 132 Confronting the Body: The Construction of Gender, Sexual Difference, and A Farewell to A r m s ................................................ 155 IV V READING ACROSS RACE .................................................................... 182 E-race-ing Anxiety?: Modem/Postmodem Literacies and Reading Beloved ......................................................................... 192 “I ‘spect White People Won’t Buy It”: Reading Way Past C ool .................................................................................. 218 AFTERWORD............................................................................................................ 239 APPENDDC: BOOKER WILLIAMS’ PORTFOLIO............................................ 245 WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................... 266 CHAPTER I WHEN LITERACIES CONVERGE: AN INTRODUCTION Stories are letters. Letters sent to anybody or everybody. But the best kind are meant to be read by a specific somebody. When you read that kind you know you are eavesdropping. You know a real person somewhere will read the same words you are reading and the story is that person’s business and you are a ghost listening in. Remember. I think it was Geral I first heard call a watermelon a letter from home. After all these years I understand a little better what she meant She was saying the melon is addressed to us. A story for us from down home. Down Home being everywhere we’ve never been, the rural South, the old days, slavery, Africa. That juicy, striped message red meat and seeds, which always looked like roaches to me, was blackness as cross and celebration, a history we could taste and chew. And it was meant for us. Addressed to us. We were meant to slit it open and take care of business. Consider all these stories as letters from home. I never liked watermelon as a kid. I think I remember you did. You weren’t afraid o f becoming instant nigger, of sitting barefoot and goggle-eyed and Day-Glo black and drippy-lipped on massa’s fence if you took one bit of the forbidden fruit. I was too scared to enjoy watermelon. Too self- conscious. I let people rob me of a simple pleasure. Watermelon’s still tainted for me. But I know better now. I can play with the idea even if I can’t get down and have a natural ball eating a real one. Anyway... these stories are letters. Long overdue letters from me to you. I wish they could tear down walls. I wish they could snatch you away from where you are. John Edgar Wideman Dedication toDamballah I have all this time pleaded only in behalf of Clarissa; but you must know, (though I shall blush again) that if I was to die for it, I cannot help being fond of Lovelace. A sad dog! why would you make him so