Crossing the Divide: Voice and Representation of African Americans : Kathryn Stockett and Harper Lee: - I understand the weight of history but can I be your sister?

Abstract: This project examines how the oppression of African Americans, especially those in domestic service to white families, is reflected in literature. The two works The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird will be the main sources. I investigate issues of race and skin colour, as well as the depiction of the ‘black’ and‘ white’ races in America in literature. Yet I will also make use of writers on African American issues to evaluate the writings on the main works concerned. What I will try to establish is whether the two authors (Kathryn Stockett and Harper Lee) effectively give a voice to the less empowered African-American segment of US society (this question of empowerment will be addressed below). And most importantly, I attempt to understand how two white women from relatively privileged backgrounds can reach across the supposed racial divide and, through aesthetic expression. I contend that peaceful protest and the mobilization of the arts in all its forms raised awareness of the terrible wrongs suffered by African Americans in the timeframe concerned in this work – anawareness raised not just in the USA but also around the world - and led to a new situation in which discrimination is not only illegal, but also widely acknowledged as deeply wrong.