In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Women Escaping Violence Women Escaping Violence E M P O W E R M E N T T H R O U G H N A R R A T I V E Elaine J. Lawless University of Missouri Press Columbia and London Copyright © 2001 by Elaine J. Lawless University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 05 04 03 02 01 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lawless, Elaine J. Women escaping violence : empowerment through narrative / Elaine J. Lawless. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8262-1314-6 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8262-1319-7 (alk. paper) 1. Abused women—United States. I. Title. HV6626.2 .L39 2001 362.82'92'0973—dc21 00-050795 䡬 ⬁™ This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Text design: Stephanie Foley Jacket design: Vickie Kersey DuBois Typesetter: BOOKCOMP, Inc. Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc. Typefaces: Crackhouse, GilSans, and Minion Twoofthechaptersinthisbookhaveappearedindifferentformas“TransformativeStories: Women Doing Things with Words,” in Journal of Applied Folklore 4, no. 1 (1999): 61–77, and as “Transformative Re-membering: De-scribing the Unspeakable in Battered Women’s Narratives,” in Southern Folklore 57, no. 1 (1999): 65–79. I dedicate this book to all the women who daily endure violence in their lives, to those who have escaped, and to those who have died at the hands of men who say they loved them and in memory of my grandmothers, Erma Helvey Dunlap and Mary Cole Lawless, whose lives I have only begun to imagine through the writing of this book, and for my mother, Angie Mae Dunlap Lawless, who now has time to savor a cup of tea A wife isn't a jug. . . She won't crack if you hit her ten times. RUSSIAN PROVERB Because of the angels— I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ. Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head—it is one and the same thing as having herheadshaved.Forifawomanwillnotveilherself,thensheshould cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. I Corinthians 11:2–10 M Y B I RT H D AY I went to hell this week alone. I watched a man with gaping mouth scream with no sound. Bent above the body of his dead wife, he’d been screaming, thusly, for a million years knife in hand. Below another knife I saw a man and woman tear asunder a child who had trusted both without question but finally questioned both the same. And, then, a mirror image of myself showed me the door and handed me a bloody key. I escaped wounded, but free. E L A I N E J . L AW L E S S S E P T E M B E R 2 9 , 1 9 7 8 ...

Share