Description
Book SynopsisRepresentations of Mammy have had a pervasive influence on the American literary and cultural imagination. This book traces the mammy figure at various historical moments linked to phases in America's racial consciousness. It features color illustrations of varied depictions of the mammy figure from the nineteenth century onwards.
Trade Review"An engaging study of 'mammy,' the provocative figure of the African American nanny, cook, and housekeeper in white households... Wallace-Sanders reveals... disturbing innuendos of mammy still relevant today, in particular the elevation in value of raising others' children at the expense of one's own." - Choice "In this insightful analysis of representations of mammy, Wallace-Sanders skillfully illustrates how this core icon of Black womanhood has figured prominently in upholding hierarchies of race, gender, and class in the United States. Far from being a timeless, natural, benign image of domesticity, the idealized mammy figure was repeatedly reworked to accommodate varying configurations of racial rule. No one reading this book will be able to see Gone with the Wind in the same way ever again." - Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland"
