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Article: Bordering on the Body: The Racial Matrix of Modern Fiction and Culture.
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 African American Review. 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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Laura Doyle's book is a valuable addition to a recent movement in cultural studies. As in studies by Eric Sundquist and Toni Morrison, Doyle argues that various canonical "white" texts cannot be fully understood without attention to issues of race and ethnicity. Bordering on the Body departs from previous studies, however, by including an analysis of gender; in Doyle's study, issues of race and gender are structurally co-dependent (not simply similar or overlapping loci for oppression). Drawing on the discourses of anthropology, literary and scientific history, phenomenology, and psychology, Doyle first establishes the "race mother" as a pivotal figure in what she calls ...