Background
Winter, Kari Joy was born on October 18, 1960 in Minneapolis. Daughter of John Harry and Dorothy Ellen (Hooverson) Winter.
(In "Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change", Kari J. Winte...)
In "Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change", Kari J. Winter compares the ways in which two marginalized genres of women's writing - female Gothic novels and slave narratives - represent the oppression of women and their resistance to oppression. Analyzing the historical contexts in which Gothic novels and slave narratives were written, Winter shows that both types of writing expose the sexual politics at the heart of patriarchal culture and both represent the terrifying aspects of life for women. Female Gothic novelists such as Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Ann Radcliffe, and Mary Shelley uncover the terror of the familiar - the routine brutality and injustice of the partriarchal family and of conventional religion, as well as the intersecting oppressions of gender and class. Indeed, they represent the world as, in Mary Wollstonecraft's words, "a vast prison" in which women are "born slaves". Writing during the same period, Harriet Jacobs, Nancy Prince, and other ex-slaves in America expose the "all-pervading corruption" of southern slavery. Their narratives combine strident attacks on the patriarchal order with criticism of white women's own racism and classism. These texts challenge white women to repudiate their complicity in a racist culture and to join their black sisters in a war against the "peculiar institution". Winter explores as well the ways that Gothic heroines and slave women resisted subjugation. Moments of escape from the horrors of patriarchal domination provide the protagonists with essential periods of respite from pain. Because this escape is never more than temporary, however, both female gothic novels and slave narratives conclude tensely. The novelists refuse to affirm either hope or despair, thereby calling into question the conventional endings of marriage or death. And although slave narratives were typically framed by white-authored texts, containment of the black voice did not diminish the inherent revolutionary conclusion of antislavery writing. According to Winter, both Gothic novels and slave narratives suggest that although women are victims and mediators of the dominant order, they also can become agents of historical change.
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writer English language educator
Winter, Kari Joy was born on October 18, 1960 in Minneapolis. Daughter of John Harry and Dorothy Ellen (Hooverson) Winter.
Bachelor cum laude, Indiana University, 1981. Doctor of Philosophy in English, University Minnesota, 1990.
Research assistant, associate program coordinator, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1980-1981; co-editor English publications, Nes Ammim Education Office, Israel, 1982-1983; instructor English, University of Minnesota, 1984-1990; assistant Professor of English, Fisk U., Nashville, 1990-1992; assistant Professor of English, U. Vermont, Burlington, since 1992. Freelance writing consultant Station KUOM, Minneapolis, 1988-1990, Mentor Media, Los Angeles, since 1992, Public Media Foundation, Boston, since 1993, Bedford Books, Boston, 1993.
(Analyzing the historical contexts in which female Gothic ...)
(In "Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change", Kari J. Winte...)
Member Modern Language Association, American Studies Association, Society Study Narrative Literature.