When Subjects Talk Back

Subversive Southerner is an oral history-based biography that leans toward being a full critical biography of Anne Braden, a southern white woman (Kentucky-born, Alabama-reared) whose racial justice activism spans nearly six decades. The book represents an enterprise of shared authority between Braden and author Catherine Fosl, and this essay explores the evolution of that enterprise and reflects on the relationship between oral history biographer and living subject. During the thirteen years that it took to complete the book, Fosl's relationship with Braden went through transitions that altered the structure of the book, and raised fundamental questions—such as who but the person living it can or should have authority over a life? One of the central issues in writing the book was how to address a question that many historians of the 1950s South have pondered: was Anne Braden ever a member of the Communist Party? Braden chose not to answer that question, and Fosl respected her decision

Art history · Biography · Chose · Communism · Economic Justice · Life writing · Oral history · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · White (mutation · Anthropology · Cuban History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Race, History, and American Society

• After the Interview Ends

  Linda Shopes•The Oral History Review•2015

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