Reading and
Study Circle Questions for Cane River
1. Elisabeth,
Suzette, Philomene and Emily exhibit agency in varying degrees.
To what extent is agency possible for each of them?
In addition to the obvious restrictions created by race, what other
barriers obstruct agency?
2. Can
you consider the gens de couleur libre as existing in the space of
metissage? (See TD, Addendum II) Why or why not?
Examples.
3. What
influences impact the identity of each of these women? Is identity transformation a factor?
4. How
are social, cultural, linguistic hierarchies complicated in this novel?
5. How
do the gens de couleur libre problematize the black/white,
master/slave binaries?
6. The
female body—is it a site of resistance to the dominant order in Cane River?
Why or why not? Examples.
7. The four women—Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene, Emily—examine each in
the context of
borderdwelling.
8.
How do we conceptualize and theorize about the people of Cane River?
In what ways (if any) does
this unique community expand our view of colonial and post-colonial
sites?
9. The
narrative voices of this novel are all women and mothers.
Why did Tademy choose a matrifocal point of view?
10. How does the concept of the other
function in Cane River?
All: Consider the
implications of Fannonism as it relates to the social/cultural constructs of
Cane River.
All: Can you view the
tactics of resistance by the women of Cane River as examples of Sandoval's
differential consciousness? Give specific examples