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Article: Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, 2 vols.
- Article from:
- Feminist Studies
- Article date:
- June 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Feminist Studies, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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i am accused of tending to the past/as if i made it./ as if i sculpted it/with my own hands. i did not./ this past was waiting for me when i came, . . . - Lucille Clifton, "I am accused of tending to the past," 1991
The poet Lucille Clifton delineates the relationship of the historian to the past through the voice of a woman nursing a foundling - bringing her to speech, memory, and time but not permanent dependence or control. Flatly denying having created or fabricated the child, the speaker claims merely to have provided a name and nourishment to a changeling:
. . . i with my mother's itch took it to breast and named it History(1)
The manner in which ...