Presentation- Bloome pg 119

Ok guys, this is for you- I hope it's understandable! Ha, I kind of just wrote all of my notes while reading through the article in the beginning so the first part of the blog is informal and might be a little confusing. The second part is the actual questions- also informal. Sorry!

“What Kind of Person is Dee?” Interrogating Black Female Identity in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” – Stephanie Power Carter
            - Carter telling us her point- what she is trying to accomplish by using a prime example – Everyday Use (Dee). Showing us Feminist thought by example.
Theoretical interpretations of black woman’s realities by those who live in it.
Showing us how perceptions can be misconstrued because of misunderstanding and obscured thoughts.
Distinct Epistemology's
Dominant society making it hard for black females to stand
Using a “black female lens” to examine how Black Female Identity is positioned and contest in the classroom discussion in the target event which focused on Alice Walker’s everyday use… (Page 120)
Black feminist lens is helpful because it helps show the hidden ideological stances that position black female identity negatively.
Also helps us raise questions – student’s opinion
                                                    - What evidence supports their interpretations?
(Bottom 120) I combine a Black Feminist Theory frame with a micro ethnographic approach to discourse analysis. Micro ethnographic discourse analysis focuses on language and other means of communications as people interact with each other to construct an event while also emphasizing social and cultural processes.

1st – made transcript of the videotape data- created a line by line description of implicit and explicit references to Walker’s character Dee-
Student’s standpoints are supported not by text but by ideological stances that negatively position African American female identity.
Black Female theory and micro ethnographic discourse analysis that makes findings visible and material.
“Personhood”… dynamic and cultural construct about who is and what is consider a person.
Personhood shares assumptions about characteristics and attributes that are assumed to be inherent in a person.
Not just negative representation but historically black women have been denied personhood (slavery)
When the teacher asks what kind of person the Dee (a black feminist female) they give more of an opinion on black females as a whole more than Dee in the story.
White child in the classroom says she is trying to be something she is not- interpreted by Carter as judging more outside the box then taking it for what it is… (Dee changing her name to more African)
No textual evidence for Valerie’s point- she can’t afford and buys- Dee never buys etc- what is Valerie doing with the evidence? Taking it and twisting it with ideologies…?
Students are making assumptions- money, embarrassment- etc.
Students assumptions are almost opposite of the story-
Dee is not embarrassed or selfish or stingy or bratty- not textually based-
Students assumptions based on prior opinion
Endings expresses how, as writers we should examine every bit of relation to the story- when asking a question, who is Dee? We should look into who she really is and who is answering the question... What the answer is and where they got their interpretations from? Textual based? Assumptions? Etc…



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Questions answering in blog-


What are the essay's main points?
How we can interpret a story negatively based on self knowledge and bias opinion. We can also take text and change the meaning based on belief. Why people might change textual analysis and what can help prevent this from happening.
The main point of the whole story is Carter in a classroom, watching students analyze Dee from “Everyday Use”- Carter informs us of the already misconstrued opinions and interpretations people have on African American Woman, especially feminist African American Women.
2. What theories does it draw from (the authors should mention them straight out)
Historical Knowledge
Bias/Opinion
Influenced student to student opinion
Epistemology's
Theoretical Interpretations
Textual Analysis
3. What "moves" does the analysis make (in terms of the particular features of language it focuses on, and the particular frames it uses = micro -macro correlations, socio-historical context, etc)
I would definitely say socio/historical context- based on our knowledge from history- we make assumptions of black females- especially young children.
I might even say Dominant narratives as well-
Dee wants simple things that even the children could relate to- more understanding and simple life which the children have interpreted as wanting more- being selfish- trying to be something she isn’t- ashamed.. etc.
4. How this essay is organized (name what kind of material is in each section)?
First section the narrator explains what she is doing with this essay. She tells us she is going to use Everyday Use and Dee specifically to developed a conclusion that might be drawn by children after reading the story.
She first explains why we might view African American woman in a specific way- based on history- assumptions- views- etc.
She goes into the identity of African American feminist’s and how they were misconstrued by their voice. She then explains how she can analyze- using epistemology's and contrast to the direct hierarchy (white dominant males)
She draws conclusions and assumptions of her own from which she would assume the children will form after the story-
Next she told us how she will document her findings- transcript to videotape- she wrote, verbatim what the conversations was- how it went and touched upon a select few comments from the classroom.
Valerie
Rita
Eve

She also relates understanding to “personhood”. Someone’s personhood is described as: Personhood shares assumptions about characteristics and attributes that are assumed to be inherent in a person.
Black females were denied personhood based on slavery and the lack of personality and being while slavery existed.
She then interprets the teacher (after the students) by analyzing her questioning. If the teacher possibly changed the way the question was asked or a word or two in the question, would it have made a difference..? 
She goes into depth about Valerie, Rita and Eve’s answers to the questions of “What kind of person is Dee?”
She tries to understand where they could have gotten heir answers from since every part of their answer was not mentioned in the text. (no textual representation).
5. What is this kind of discourse analysis good for? Or - what kind of questions can it answer?
I think Carter’s analysis was a great way to show the connection to historical past, assumptions and opinion through this simple activity. There was a long extensive analysis drawn from a simple conversation in the classroom. Every aspect of the talk influences answers and questions throughout the conversation.
Carter’s intro gives us a better understanding ourselves of what to expect, what might be misunderstood before going into this reading and what she is trying to do throughout the essay.