Dead Women Talking: Figures of Injustice in American Literature

Index

abolition, 87–88 abortions, 3, 20, 59, 136, 137, 162–63 ACT UP, 183 adolescence, 4, 149, 155–57. See also coming-ofage narratives advice books, 96–97 affect theory, 93–94 Africa, American connections to, 8, 33, 74, 77, 80–81, 170 African American identity, 77–78, 82, 91, 112, 115–26, 165, 168–73 African American literary traditions, 18, 67–70, 76, 87, 111–15, 118, 123–24, 168–69. See also slavery: slave narratives AIDS, 19, 52, 92, 94, 102, 105, 135, 137, 183 Alcestis, 7 American Indians, 24, 25–26, 131 anatomical studies, 180–81 Angels in America (Kushner), 1, 8, 17, 19, 92–109, 110, 181 annoyingness, 17, 92–99 Antigone, 7–8 apology, theory of, 97, 100–102, 105. See also forgiveness apostrophe, 6, 71–72 aristocracy, 1, 18, 22–28, 33 Armstrong, Louis, 10 Asian American identity, 156, 176–80, 182–83 As I Lay Dying (Faulkner), 3, 4, 18, 51–66, 85, 115, 152–54, 161–63, 165–68, 170, 173, 174, 182–84 assimilation, 131, 138, 156, 183 Astaire, Fred, 10 Baldwin, James, 104, 120 Balzac, Honoré de, 37 beauty, 9, 17, 42, 48, 71–72, 78–84, 89–91, 99, 127; and death, 6, 22, 26, 34; and justice, 84–87 Beloved (Morrison), 1–4, 17, 18, 70, 77–91, 115, 119, 127, 147, 181; as ghost story, 78–79, 89; as iconic dead woman talking, 2, 20, 51; as slave narrative, 78, 80, 87–91 Bentham, Jeremy, 59 bildungsroman. See coming-of-age narratives bioethics, 60, 64 biopower, 6 black feminism, 77, 91, 165–67, 183 blues, the, 20, 161, 163–68; female singers of, 164–68 body: as basis of citizenship, 3, 56, 60, 62–63, 82–83, 148–49; as basis of subjection, 7, 13, 65; disposition of, 39, 58–60, 135; identification of, 3; and talking dead, 3–4, 6, 13, 16, 27–28, 32, 77, 81–83, 148–49, 179–80. See also cadavers Bronfen, Elisabeth, 5, 9, 12, 13, 15, 121, 181 burials, 29, 52, 57–58, 64, 70, 167, 171–74, 184; customs of, 29, 58, 64, 163, 182; improper and proper, 57–59, 67, 70, 143, 163, 170–74; premature, 29. See also exhumations; reburials Butler, Judith, 116, 126, 132, 134–36, 138–40, 142 cadavers, 2–3, 6, 21, 29–31, 34–35, 39, 51–66, 104–5, 112, 114, 125, 127, 152, 168–75, 180–82; decomposition of, 54, 56–60, 120, 180; figurative, 31, 107, 132, 147; legal status of, 39, 56, 60; mistaken, 13, 27, 29; versus personhood, 57–58, 180; preservation of, 35, 59, 65, 147; talking, 3, 6–9, 12–16, 23, 29, INDEX 218 Index cadavers (cont.) 32–34, 63, 65, 85, 115, 144, 161; in Western literature and art, 5–7, 9. See also burials; funerals; tombs cancer, 64, 92, 103, 131–37 Carter, Angela, 8 Cassuto, Leonard, 32, 144, 148, 157 Castillo, Ana, 126–42; and Catholicism, 127, 129–31, 140–41; and Chicana culture, 128–30, 137–39; and community organizing, 127, 129, 138–41; and the fantastic, 128–32, 141–42; and feminism, 138, 139; and grief, 126–27, 132–36, 140–42; and indigenismo, 126, 129–30, 137; Massacre of the Dreamers, 129; So Far from God, 3, 4, 19, 126–42. See also telenovela realism Castronovo, Russ, 2–3, 34, 131, 184 Catholicism, 19, 129–31, 140–41 cemeteries. See graves Chicana feminism, 138, 139 Chicano/a culture, 128–30, 137–39 Chicano/a literature, 19, 126–30 Chopin, Kate, 154 Cisneros, Sandra, 128 citizenship, 3–4, 17, 33, 62–63, 78–87, 90–91, 96, 109, 117, 162, 169; classical, 85; communal , 80; denial of, 3, 31, 80, 87, 90–91, 96; liberal, 80, 83, 109; multicultural, 19, 109; posthumous, 2–5, 8, 38, 58–60, 63, 109, 127, 141–42, 148–49, 162, 169–70; republican , 80, 86 civil death, 3, 188n12. See also necro citizenship ; social death civil rights era, 20, 156, 162, 168–69, 172; and post–civil rights era, 20, 68, 111, 114, 168, 171–73 class: British system of, 22, 37, 40; crossgenerational transmission of, 22, 36, 39–40, 43–44, 47–50; and inequality, 38–39; and mobility, 38, 165; posthumous recognition of, 36–39; transgressions of, 36–37, 39–47 class ascent, 36, 39–47 class descent, 31, 42 classical literature, 7–8, 73–74, 164 Cohen, Ed, 62–63, 82–83, 149 Cohn, Roy: in Angels in America, 1...