Who's Talking/Who's Talking Back? The Subject of Personal NarrativeTelling Lies in Modern American Autobiography. Timothy Dow AdamsJessie Bernard: The Making of a Feminist. Robert C. BannisterRevealing Lives: Autobiography, Biography, and Gender. Susan Groag Bell , Marilyn YalomSadie Brower Neakok: An Inupiaq Woman. Margaret B. BlackmanBlack Women Writing Autobiography. Joanne M. BraxtonWinged Words: American Indian Writers Speak. Laura ColtelliCrested Kimono: Power

Abstract

Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible. It is that act of speech, of talking back, that is no mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of our movement from object to subject-the liberated voice. [BELL HOOKS, Talking Back]