Review Essay : 'The Dream Is the Truth'
| Author | Shauna Van Praagh |
| Published date | 01 June 1995 |
| Date | 01 June 1995 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/096466399500400211 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
, 277-
REVIEW
ESSAY
’THE DREAM
Is
THE TRUTH’
TONI
MORRISON
(ED.)
Race-ing
Justice,
En-gendering
Power:
Essays
on
Anita
Hill,
Clarence
Thomas,
and
the
Construction
of Social
Reality.
New
York:
Pantheon,
1992;
MARI
J.
MATSUDA
ET
AL.,
Words
That
Wound:
Critical
Race
Theory,
Assaultive
Speech,
and
the
First
Amendment.
Oxford:
Westview
Press,
1993,
192
pp.
SHAUNA
VAN
PRAAGH
McGill
University,
Montreal
Ships
at
a
distance
have
every
man’s
wish
on
board.
For
some
they
come
in
with
the
tide.
For
others
they
sail
forever
on
the
horizon,
never
out
of
sight,
never
landing
until
the
Watcher
turns
his
eyes
away
in
resignation,
his
dreams
mocked
to
death
by
Time.
That
is
the
life
of
men.
Now,
women
forget
all
those
things
they
don’t
want
to
remember,
and
remember
everything
they
don’t
want
to
forget.
The
dream
is
the
truth.
Then
they
act
and
do
things accordingly.
(Hurston,
1990: 1)
First
published
in
1937
and
now
something
of
an
American
classic,
Thezr
Eyes
Were
Watchzng
God
is
a
compelling
story
that
focuses
on
the
experiences
and
perspectives
of
black
women
within
the
context
of
an
examination,
celebration
and
critique
of
black
culture.
In
a
society
that
continues
to
grapple
with
race
and
gender
relations
both
in
a
theoretical
and
pragmatic
sense,
Zora
Neale
Hurston’s
words
still
offer
insight.
The
wishes
of
men
and
the
truths
for
women
intersect,
inform
and
clash
with
each
other;
a
dynamic
made
more
complex
by
an
overlapping
framework
characterized
by
race
and
culture.
By
investigating
the
way
these
intersections
not
only
result
from,
but
also
construct
our
reality,
we
can
begin
to
explore
the
implications
for
law
and
legal
theory.
Two
recent
books
examine
this
interplay
and
impact
of
race
and
gender
in
law,
politics
and United
States
society,
and
offer
a
set
of
complex
responses
to
the
issues
at
stake.
Race-zng Justzce,
En-gendenng
Power
is
a
collection
of
essays
written
in
the
wake
of
the
confirmation
of
Clarence
Thomas
as
the
106th
justice
of
the
United
States
Supreme
Court.
Focused
on
the
hearings
in
which
sexual
harassment
was
alleged
by
Anita
Hill
and
denied
by
Thomas,
these
are
interdisciplinary
pieces
drawn
from
law,
literary
theory,
history,
political
philosophy
and
African-American
studies,
and
brought
together
by
Toni
Morrison,
winner
of
the
Nobel
prize
for
literature
and
probably
today’s
best-known
African-American
woman
novelist.
In
Words
That
Wound,
four
law
professors
have
gathered
together
their
essays
on
hate
speech
and
the
ways
in
which
’Critical
Race
Theory’
might
alter
our
understanding
and
application
of
the
guarantee
of
freedom
of
expression.
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Thousand
Oaks,
CA
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
4
(1995),
277-283
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