Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-212) and index.
Contents:
Introduction, sadism and specularity -- Empathy and risk: photography, writing, the softest voice -- Projects of identity in Carrie Mae Weems's From here I saw what happened and I cried the crucible of witnessing -- Sacrificed daughters and the grammar of enslavement in Toni Morrison's Beloved, Flannery O'Connor's "A view of the woods," and Dorothy Allison's Bastard out of Carolina -- The adequate of hell," or, how to watch the other suffer -- Queer southern belles: the transgender object of desire in O'Connor, McCullers, and Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and men -- Sadism and the open body: being in relation to the suffering other -- By way of a conclusion: what I have done in your name -- Appendices.
Summary:
"McCullers, and Zora Neale Hurston, Claire Raymond uncovers a pattern of femininity constructed around representations of sadistic violence in American women's literature and photography. Raymond explores the idea that a femininity constructed by the positioning of the feminine character as witness to sadistic acts is a phenomenon distinctly of the American South that is linked to the culture's history of racism"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.