(Re)Shaping the "White trash" myth: Dorothy Allison's defiant attempt to deconstruct the "White trash" myth from within

Abstract

V nirnci kulturnich, socialnich a literarnich studii ve Spojenych statech arnerickych se v soucasnosti dostava do popredi odborneho zajrnu terna "bile rasy/kultury/barvy pleti". Cilem "belosskych studif" je nabourat bilou neviditelnost a jeji norrnativnf podstatu, ktera je stale trvale pritomna ve vetSine rovin americkeho zivota. Vnfrnani bile barvy pleti jako jen jednoho z mnoha dalSich aspektu tvoffcich lidskou identitu otevira tento koncept nepredpojate analyze. Nicrnene, jak tvrdf jeden z prednich teoretiku "belosstvi" Matt Wray: "Odbornici, jez se zabYvaji tematem bile barvy pleti pronaseji neotresitelne a trefne vyroky, modifikuje-li slovo belosskj/d slova jako nadvlada, moc, vysada ci hrdost, ale vetSinou jsou zaskoceni, kdyz nasleduje slovo spfna/odpadI06 ." Z toho lze usuzovat, ze "belosska" studia jen pokracujf v tradici arnerickeho socialnfho a kulturnfho diskurzu a nezvazuji danou otazku v cele jeji slozitosti, ale soustfedi se pouze na problernatiku "rasy" a opomijejf podstatne souvislosti s trfdnim rozdelenim spolecnosti, genderem, sexualitou a mnohymi dalSimi slozkami lidske identity. "Bila spina" jakozto kulturni koncept v sobe spojuje nejru.znejsf slozky lidske identity, a pro to musf by! podroben mnohovrstevnate analyze, ktera zpochybni a naboura predevsim ty jeho aspekty, ktere byly vzdy...

ill contemporary cultural, social, and literary studies in the USA "whiteness" has recently become the central issue of scholarly interest (Wray 146). The goal of "whiteness studies" is to challenge white invisibility and its normative character which continues to permeate most aspects of American life. Rendering the quality of "whiteness" as yet another object of identity debate destroys the racial hierarchy and opens this concept to an honest and unbiased analysis. However, as Matt Wray points out: "Scholars of whiteness have become extraordinarily sure-footed and nimble when the word that follows white is supremacy, power, privilege, or pride, but they tend to stumble badly when it is followed by trash" (Wray 3). This insinuates that whiteness studies are following a common pattern in the American social and cultural discourse and disregard the complexity of the given question, focusing solely on the problematic of "race", and ignoring the numerous related issues such as that of class, gender, sexuality, etc 1. This articulates the need for new approaches to the studies of identity; not those which focus on its single aspect, but those which take into account its complex, fluid and constantly evolving nature. "White trash" as a cultural concept unites numerous identity categories, and it is therefore...