Women's Words

As oral history and feminist theoruy have gained sophistication, feminists have begun to ask new, provocative questions about the practice, ethics, and value of oral history for recording women's lives. How, for example, does the appropriation and interpretation bhy feminist scholars alter an oral historical account? How do the questions asked affect the accounts subjects live? Can we trust what women say about thire lives? WWhat does it mean that some women are consigned by virtue of education and class to be subjects of other women's research? The first book-length study of the subject, Women's Words examines through the eyes of eighteen scholars in the field, the critical questions confronting oral history as a feminist methodology. The authors address political, academic, cross-cultural, and contracultural issues as they relate to the practice of oral history, including: the ethical dilemmas associated with first world' research regarding third world' women; the way in which narrative structure affects the meaning of what is recounted; the uses of oral history for the purposes of advocacy among Palestinian women; and the suitability of oral history for expressing black women's experience. Women's Words incorporates the most recent scholarship from women in a variety of disciplines, engaging feminist and literary critical theories, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and folklore. Many of the analyses presented in the volume developed out of and are told in relation to particular experiences with the practice of oral history. Thus, the work remains accessible despite its theoretical complexity, enabling readers to experience the development of theory from practice and to continue the process on their own.