bastard out of carolina

15
Bastard out of Carolina Dorothy Alison

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women's lit

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Page 1: Bastard out of Carolina

Bastard out of Carolina

Dorothy Alison

Page 2: Bastard out of Carolina

Interview About Bastard

Why would this type of book be banned?

Do you believe some truths should not be spoken?

Page 3: Bastard out of Carolina

Dorothy Allison“I do not write about nice people. I am not nice people.”

Born in South Carolina

Lives with her partner Alix in California

First in her family to graduate from high school

Often writes about personal experience

Bastard was banned from some schools upon its release

Bastard won the National Book Award in 1992

Describes herself as a feminist, working class storyteller, a Southern ex-patriot, a sometime poet, and a born again Californian

Page 4: Bastard out of Carolina

Further Research Movie

The Women Who Hate Me: Poems by Dorothy Allison (1983)

Trash: Short Stories (1988)

The Women Who Hate Me: Poetry 1980-1990 (1991)

Bastard Out of Carolina (1992)

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature (1994)

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (1995)

Cavedweller (1998)

She Who (TBA)

Page 5: Bastard out of Carolina

Free Writing: Pick One How does Allison feel about the concept of beauty and

power?

How is she using her life story as a piece of rhetoric?

Why does she believe storytelling is so powerful?

Why do you think Allison chose to include pictures of herself and her family in this essay? How does that add to the story?

Page 6: Bastard out of Carolina

The Grotesque Defined as distorted, repulsive, or ugly

Grotesque characters typically induce both empathy and disgust.

They may be grotesque in appearance or perform grotesque actions

Some characters may look pretty but have grotesque manners, prompting us to ask who is the monster and who is the man? (famous line from Quasimodo.)

Southern writers are often categorized by their use of the grotesque.

Page 7: Bastard out of Carolina

Grotesque cont. What characters appear to be grotesque to you?

Why?

In what ways does Bone both love and feel ashamed of her family? How can we tell?

Why would this love/hate relationship be confusing for Bone?

Page 8: Bastard out of Carolina

Comparison How does the essay compliment or complicate the

novel so far?

How are the relationships in the book between the women similar to or different from the women described in Allison’s essay?

What do you think Allison means when she says that behind every story is an unspoken truth?

Why do you think Bastard Out of Carolina was so important for her to write?

Page 9: Bastard out of Carolina

Class and Gender In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s

grandmother claims African American women are the “mules of the world.” In what way does this novel make a similar claim?

How do we know that the Boatwrights are of a certain class?

How does Bone discover this for herself, and how does she feel about it?

How are the Boatwright men described? What about the women?

Why does Bone wish she was born a boy?

Page 10: Bastard out of Carolina

Quiz What is Shannon’s ailment?

Who does Bone conspire with to rob the convenient store?

What does Bone find and keep from the river?

What does Bone want to be when she grows up?

Who is Temple?

Bonus: Name one of the stars that Bone gets to meet on the gospel tour.

Page 11: Bastard out of Carolina

Themes: Religion/Faith

Music

Story-telling

Revenge

Pride

Beauty and Ugliness

Trash

Page 12: Bastard out of Carolina

Friendship Why are Shannon and Bone drawn to one another?

What is the power dynamic between the two?

What causes the conflict between the them?

What ultimately happens to Shannon?

How do you see this relationship fitting into the larger novel or its themes?

Page 13: Bastard out of Carolina

Feminist Conversations Sandra Cisneros and Dorothy Allison

Page 14: Bastard out of Carolina

Race In what ways do racial tensions arise in the novel?

How do these tensions affect Bone?

What implications arise about the distinction between race and class in this novel or overall.

Page 15: Bastard out of Carolina

Naming Why is Bone’s real name and nickname so significant?

How does Bone receive her nickname? And what symbolic or metaphorical meaning might it have?

What power does a name hold within this community?

Why do you think Bone’s name does not appear in the title of the book? What does this suggest?