Introduction to Part II

• Published in: Canadian review of American studies Vol. 22; no. Supplement 2; pp. 167 - 170
• Main Author: Matthews, Jean V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Downsview, Ont Canadian Association for American Studies 01-01-1992
• ISSN: 0007-7720; 1710-114X
• DOI: 10.3138/CRAS-022s-02-01

The essays in Part II of Reinterpreting the American Experience: Women, Gender, and American Studies further exemplify some of the themes that emerged in Part I. The "different voice" of women, for example, appears strongly in Catherine Lundie's discussion of ghost stories by American female writers, as does an emphasis on empathy as a mode of knowledge. The female protagonists in these stories are seldom really terrified by the ghosts they encounter; they tend, rather, to empathize with them, and the anguish they feel comes from this sympathetic identification. Their empathy, in turn, is rooted in the common female experience of being present but never really heard. They can understand how it feels to be ghosts among the living.