Playing to Girls in Virginia Hamilton’s <i>Her Stories</i> and Patricia McKissack’s <i>Porch Lies</i>: Frames of Selfhood, Community, and Audience

  • Karen Chandler University of Louisville

Abstract

Karen Chandler’s “Playing to Girls in Virginia Hamilton’s Her Stories and Patricia McKissack’s Porch Lies: Frames of Selfhood, Community, and Audience” considers the female voice in traditional African American stories, pondering the ways in which girls’ and women’s experience is featured and valorized in traditional porch, tall, and folk tales dominated by male heroes. Chandler considers Hamilton’s collection, Her Stories, comprised of exclusively female heroes, and McKissack’s Porch Lies, which, while traditional in its male-dominance, is narrated by a young girl who actively makes each story her own. Chandler seeks out depictions of agential female heroes even in settings that might initially indicate conventions of female passivity.

Author Biography

Karen Chandler, University of Louisville
Karen Chandler, an associate professor at the University of Louisville, writes about and teaches courses on African American print and vernacular cultures. She is currently working on a book about representations of history in African American children's literature.
Issue
Vol. 17 No. 2 (2014)
Section
Alice's Academy
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