Sista, Speak!: Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy

The demand of white, affluent society that all Americans should speak, read, and write proper English causes many people who are not white and/or middle class to attempt to talk in a way that feel peculiar to [their] mind, as a character in Alice Walker's The Color Purple puts it. In this book, Sonja Lanehart explores how this valorization of proper English has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women--her grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and herself. Through interviews and written statements by each woman, Lanehart draws out the life stories of these women and their attitudes toward and use of language. Making comparisons and contrasts among them, she shows how, even within a single family, differences in age, educational opportunities, and social circumstances can lead to widely different abilities and comfort in using language to navigate daily life. Her research also adds a new dimension to our understanding of African American English, which has been little studied in relation to women.

Author: Sonja L. Lanehart
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 06/01/2002
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.06w x 0.82d
ISBN: 9780292747296

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/01/2002 pg. 1652
Women's Review of Books 12/01/2002 pg. 21
Choice 10/01/2002 pg. 318

About the Author
Sonja Lanehart is Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and the Humanities at the University of Texas at San Antonio.