Brian Norman uncovers a curious phenomenon in American
literature: dead women who nonetheless talk. These characters
appear in works by such classic American writers as Poe, Dickinson,
and Faulkner as well as in more recent works by Alice Walker, Toni
Morrison, Tony Kushner, and others. These figures are also emerging
in contemporary culture, from the film and best-selling novel "The
Lovely Bones "to the hit television drama "Desperate
Housewives."
"Dead Women Talking" demonstrates that the dead, especially
women, have been speaking out in American literature since well
before it was fashionable. Norman argues that they voice concerns
that a community may wish to consign to the past, raising questions
about gender, violence, sexuality, class, racial injustice, and
national identity. When these women insert themselves into the
story, they do not enter precisely as ghosts but rather as
something potentially more disrupting: posthumous citizens. The
community must ask itself whether it can or should recognize such a
character as one of its own. The prospect of posthumous citizenship
bears important implications for debates over the legal rights of
the dead, social histories of burial customs and famous cadavers,
and the political theory of citizenship and social death.
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