academic struggles

[drydem]

So, in my dissertation, I have a short section on Zora Neale Hurston and I'm having a lot of trouble with using the word negro. While it is a term that Hurston uses and is historically appropriate to what she was seeking, it still is kind of twinge worthy for me as a word, given the way in which it represents a phase of American history marked by official disenfranchisement of African American voters and the perpetration of horrible acts of intimidation and violence upon them. As is, I use the term but have a footnote about why. What do people think about this as an approach?

Comments

[chilimuffin.livejournal.com]

you could also treat it as if it were a different language (and it sort of is - like old english or something... "old american"), and thus put it in italics. However, that draws attention to the word and might make people think about it. Just one footnote is probably completely justified, if you need any justification at all.

[wadam.livejournal.com]

I think that having a footnote about why you use the term is perfectly acceptable. It's something that it never would have occurred to me to do, but I suppose that writing about my research requires using the term so much that it's kind of become normalized for me. But now that you mention it, perhaps I have a footnote in my future as well.

[fallen-scholar.livejournal.com]

Why not a bracket replacement? I think the footnote thing is okay, but it teeters on the edge of what consititutes...no, reprhase that, it depends how it's done. If it done, it's best if done quickly. Don't moralize, don't inject too much editorial content. Any justification is going to seem cheap and distracting, even if reasonable.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I think footnoting is an appropriate means of dealing with it. I'd also say you should use the term when speaking in direct connection with her work, but another word when talking more generally. By which I mean -- to invent an example -- that I if I were writing about someone who had written a lot about Christopher Marlowe, usually calling him Kit, I'd say "Kit" when talking about the man as seen in the text, and "Marlowe" when talking about him through my own lens. Does that make sense?

[spooksix.livejournal.com]

I like what swan_tower has to say, using the different language when describing things from different points of view. I have to say, as much as my own students use the other N word in my class and in the hall-ways at school, I'm becoming uncomfortably desensitized to it.

You might also consider your audience and who will reading what you're writing.

Legally, of course, a footnote is good to help cover yourself, and if it makes you feel better, go for it.