Assuming white identities: Racial and gendered looking across the literature/media divide

Connor, Rachel; Crofts, Charlotte

Abstract

This essay explores and problematises the category of 'white women', examining the developing dialogue between feminist and postcolonial discourses across the literature / media divide.

Our focus is on representation which, as Richard Dyer acknowledges, is 'one of the prime means by which we have any knowledge of reality' (Dyer, 1997: xiii). Two interconnecting strands are suggested by the title: on the one hand we examine the often invisible cultural 'assumptions' underpinning the representation of whiteness and, on the other, we explore the implications of the visible 'assumption' of whiteness in relation to notions of performativity and passing.

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1999
• Deposit Date: Oct 21, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 113-129
• Book Title: White? Women: Critical Perspectives on Race and Gender
• ISBN: 9780953658503
• Keywords: race, gender, literature/media divide, whiteness, white identity, white women
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1097940
• Publisher URL: http://www.rawnervebooks.co.uk/whitewomen.html
• Contract Date: Nov 15, 2016