At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home
This article offers a transcultural reading of the issues of cultural trauma and mobility in Daniel Black’s novel They Tell Me of a Home (2005). The protagonist, T.L., returns to his agrarian home community, Swamp Creek, in Arkansas, after a ten-year absence in which he received a PhD in black studi...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
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European journal of American studies
2016
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_11607 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_11607 https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11607 urn:doi:10.4000/ejas.11607 https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11607 2016-08-11T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fmj1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home European journal of American studies European Association for American Studies info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1991-9336 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas Kilpeläinen, Pekka mobility African American fiction transculturation cultural memory spatiality This article offers a transcultural reading of the issues of cultural trauma and mobility in Daniel Black’s novel They Tell Me of a Home (2005). The protagonist, T.L., returns to his agrarian home community, Swamp Creek, in Arkansas, after a ten-year absence in which he received a PhD in black studies in New York. His homecoming foregrounds the cultural clash between the patriarchal black community and the elitist academic world that T.L. represents. This is articulated in the novel at the aesthetic level as the tension between the oral storytelling tradition of the black community and the literary expression favored by T.L. The opposite sides of the cultural clash and their respective modes of cultural production are understood as ways of dealing with the cultural memory of slavery and its aftermaths. The Meetin’ Tree, the site of storytelling in Swamp Creek, becomes a transcultural space where these issues are negotiated. T.L. eventually adopts a newfound appreciation for his cultural roots and also initiates a change in the negative attitudes of the community towards education and reading. He thereby becomes a transcultural mediator between these conflicting cultures, aiming to stress and combine their strengths and to negotiate their weaknesses. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
mobility African American fiction transculturation cultural memory spatiality |
| spellingShingle |
mobility African American fiction transculturation cultural memory spatiality Kilpeläinen, Pekka At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| description |
This article offers a transcultural reading of the issues of cultural trauma and mobility in Daniel Black’s novel They Tell Me of a Home (2005). The protagonist, T.L., returns to his agrarian home community, Swamp Creek, in Arkansas, after a ten-year absence in which he received a PhD in black studies in New York. His homecoming foregrounds the cultural clash between the patriarchal black community and the elitist academic world that T.L. represents. This is articulated in the novel at the aesthetic level as the tension between the oral storytelling tradition of the black community and the literary expression favored by T.L. The opposite sides of the cultural clash and their respective modes of cultural production are understood as ways of dealing with the cultural memory of slavery and its aftermaths. The Meetin’ Tree, the site of storytelling in Swamp Creek, becomes a transcultural space where these issues are negotiated. T.L. eventually adopts a newfound appreciation for his cultural roots and also initiates a change in the negative attitudes of the community towards education and reading. He thereby becomes a transcultural mediator between these conflicting cultures, aiming to stress and combine their strengths and to negotiate their weaknesses. |
| author |
Kilpeläinen, Pekka |
| author_facet |
Kilpeläinen, Pekka |
| author_sort |
Kilpeläinen, Pekka |
| title |
At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| title_short |
At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| title_full |
At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| title_fullStr |
At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| title_full_unstemmed |
At the Meetin’ Tree: Reading, Storytelling, and Transculturation in Daniel Black’s They Tell Me of a Home |
| title_sort |
at the meetin’ tree: reading, storytelling, and transculturation in daniel black’s they tell me of a home |
| publisher |
European journal of American studies |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11607 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11607 |
| _version_ |
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