Conversations with Miss Jane

• Main Author: Geneviève Fabre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2006-05-01
• Series: Transatlantica : Revue d'Études Américaines
• Subjects: autobiography; Louisiana; Gaines; Ernest J.; community; memory
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/931

Considering the wide range of conversations in the autobiography, this essay will attempt to appraise the importance of these verbal exchanges in relation to the overall narrative structure of the book and to the prevalent oral tradition in Louisiana culture, as both an individual and communal expression. The variety of circumstances, the setting and staging, the interlocutors , and the complex intersection of time and place, of stories and History, will be examined; in these conversations with Miss Jane many actors participate, from  the interviewer-narrator, to most characters; even the reader becomes involved. Speaking, hearing, listening, keeping silent is an elaborate ritual that performs many functions; besides conveying news or rumors, it imparts information on the times and on the life of a “representative” woman whose existence - spanning a whole century- is both singular and emblematic. Most importantly this essay will analyse the resonance of an eventful and often dramatic era on her sensibility and conversely show how her evolving sensibility informs that history and draws attention to aspects that might have passed unnoticed or be forever silenced. Jane’s desire for liberty and justice is often challenged as she faces the possibilities of life or death. Conversations build up a complex, often contradictory, but compelling portrait: torn between silence and vehemence, between memories and the urge to meet the future, Jane summons body and mind to find her way through the maze of a fast changing world; self-willed and obstinate she claims her right to speak, to express with wit and wisdom her firm belief in the word, in the ability to express deep seated convictions and faith and a whole array of feelings and emotions.