... that is beside the point, or so I came to understand. Because the essay remained, for me, true-despite the dissonance I felt when I inhabited Didion's "I" by writing it with my own hand.
Who is white, and why should we care? There was a time when the
immigrants of New York City's Lower East Side-the Irish, the Poles,
the Italians, the Russian Jews-were not white, but now "they" are.
...There was a time when the French-speaking working classes of Quebec
were told to "speak white," that is, to speak English. Whiteness is
an allegorical category before it is demographic.
This volume gathers together some of the most influential
scholars of privilege and marginalization in philosophy, sociology,
economics, psychology, literature, and history to examine the idea
of whiteness. Drawing from their diverse racial backgrounds and
national origins, these scholars weave their theoretical insights
into essays critically informed by personal narrative. This
approach, known as "braided narrative," animates the work of
award-winning author Eula Biss. Moved by Biss's fresh and incisive
analysis, the editors have assembled some of the most creative
voices in this dialogue, coming together across the
disciplines.
Along with the editors, the contributors are Eduardo
Bonilla-Silva, Nyla R. Branscombe, Drucilla Cornell, Lewis R.
Gordon, Paget Henry, Ernest-Marie Mbonda, Peggy McIntosh, Mark
McMorris, Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, Victor Ray, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz,
Louise Seamster, Tracie L. Stewart, George Yancy, and Heidi A.
Zetzer.
Biss presents the history of telephone and its impact in the society and a series of lynchings that involves telephone poles. Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrated his telephone in 1876 that ...allows people to be connected through one branching cable.
Murder mystery Biss, Eula
TLS, the Times Literary Supplement,
04/2017
5950
Trade Publication Article
Biss narrates her participation in a murder mystery party to celebrate her neighbor's fiftieth birthday. Each guest were given a list of questions to interrogate other guests about a murder. She ...appreciated the dark humor behind the game. However, nobody at the party guessed the true murderer.
Contemporary discussions on nonfiction are often riddled with questions about the boundaries between truth and memory, honesty and artifice, facts and lies. Just how much truth is in nonfiction? How ...much is a lie?Blurring the Boundariessets out to answer such questions while simultaneously exploring the limits of the form.
This collection features twenty genre-bending essays from today's most renowned teachers and writers-including original work from Michael Martone, Marcia Aldrich, Dinty W. Moore, Lia Purpura, and Robin Hemley, among others. These essays experiment with structure, style, and subject matter, and each is accompanied by the writer's personal reflection on the work itself, illuminating his or her struggles along the way. As these innovative writers stretch the limits of genre, they take us with them, offering readers a front-row seat to an ever-evolving form.
Readers also receive a practical approach to craft thanks to the unique writing exercises provided by the writers themselves. Part groundbreaking nonfiction collection, part writing reference,Blurring the Boundariesserves as the ideal book for literary lovers and practitioners of the craft.
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