Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing From Faulkner to Morrison

This study looks to novels and autobiographies to discover how contemporary writers have imagined possibilities for relationships between African American and white women that overcome the stereotypical patterns of racism, focusing on works by William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman, Audre Lorde, Kaye Gibbons, Elizabeth Cox, Sherley Anne Williams, and Toni Morrison.

Kelly Lynch Reames is Assistant Professor of English at Western Kentucky University, where she teaches courses on American literature. She has published works on William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, and other U.S. writers. She is currently working on a project on Lillian Hellman.

“Sisters in Sin”: William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun *  “The Image of You, True or False, Last[s] a Lifetime”: Lillian Hellman’s Memories of Black Women *  “The Very House of Difference”: Audre Lorde’s Autobiographies * “Just This Side of Colored”: Ellen Foster and Night Talk *  “Who Can You Friend with, Love with Like That?”: Dessa Rose * “A Girl from a Whole Other Race”: Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Beloved, and Paradise

Introduction * "Sisters in Sin": William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun * "The Image of You, True or False, Last[s] a Lifetime": Lillian Hellman’s Memories of Black Women * "The Very House of Difference": Audre Lorde’s Autobiographies * "Just This Side of Colored": Ellen Foster and Night Talk * "A Girl from a Whole Other Race": Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Beloved, and Paradise * Conclusion