MOTHER-DAUGHTER BONDS (MOTHERHOOD) IN AMY TAN'S NOVELS THE KITCHEN GOD'S WIFE AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB AND IN DOROTHY ALLISON'S NOVELS BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA AND CAVEDWELLER

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (XVIII) ◽  
pp. 235-245.
Author(s):  
Fatma KOYUNCU CANİŞ
Keyword(s):  
Bastard Out Of Carolina

Dorothy Allison: Revising the “White Trash” Narrative

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Langhorne
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Dorothy Allison ◽  
White Trash ◽  
Poor Whites ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Central Florida ◽  
Bastard Out Of Carolina

This chapter discusses the life and work of Dorothy Allison, who knows about growing up “white trash.” Born on April 11, 1949, in Greenville, South Carolina, Allison was “the bastard daughter of a white woman from a desperately poor family.” Poverty forced Allison's family to leave South Carolina for central Florida in search of a better life. In 1983, Allison published a collection of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, followed by a short story collection, Trash, in 1988. In 1992, Allison published Bastard out of Carolina, a largely autobiographical novel about growing up in the Rough South. Allison's other works include chapters and a memoir, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (1995). The term “white trash” and its prevalence demonstrate society's tolerance of stereotyping poor whites. Such stereotypes not only portray to outsiders a false image of the working class, but are reinforced within the working class itself. Allison writes to combat this myth and these prejudices.

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