Daughters of the Dust
by Julie Dash
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A black woman anthropologist from 1920s New York visits the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas and discovers her roots. A look at the culture of the Gullah people, descendants of blacks who intermarried with Indians.Tags
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Member Reviews
This is the book chosen by Charleston County Library for the 2011 One Book program. Read about it here. I'd not heard of it prior to the selection.
The history of South Carolina fascinates me. I've lived here over half my life (33 years and counting, though not in one stretch) and I continue to love learning about the cultures of Carolina. The Gullah world, in particular is a lesson in survivor-ship and courage. I stand in awe of what these people, torn from their world, created through generations when transplanted so violently to the Carolina coast.
This story provided a portal back into the 1920's, capturing the life of sea island folks and a young woman who has returned to the island of her heritage from Harlem for anthropological show more study of the culture she came from. The characters are all richly drawn, and I've been told that there is interplay between the film (released 1991) and the book, though the book certainly stands alone quite successfully. I have not yet seen Dash's film, but intend to. (My friend, author Robert Jordan, said after seeing the film years ago that had he moved away from Carolina, seeing this film would have made him homesick and wish to return.) The richness of the characters and story, interwoven with the telling of the lies (stories) which give back-history created a fabulous tapestry. One other element, which completely captured me, was the sprinkling of potions and recipes for charms through the book. (The first one, on page 23, I told my friend Mary about, since she makes soaps and aromatherapy scents. I'm going to try it, too: "Mix 75 drops of peppermint oil with 35 drops of eucalyptus oil, 10 drops of clove, and 1/2 cup of spring water. Shake the mixture around the four corners of the room to bring the nature inside. As the mixture ages, the scent will become stronger."
I usually don't give a synopsis of a story in my reviews, and will carry on that tradition. However, I will say, this is a marvelous "lie" told by Julie Dash. show less
The history of South Carolina fascinates me. I've lived here over half my life (33 years and counting, though not in one stretch) and I continue to love learning about the cultures of Carolina. The Gullah world, in particular is a lesson in survivor-ship and courage. I stand in awe of what these people, torn from their world, created through generations when transplanted so violently to the Carolina coast.
This story provided a portal back into the 1920's, capturing the life of sea island folks and a young woman who has returned to the island of her heritage from Harlem for anthropological show more study of the culture she came from. The characters are all richly drawn, and I've been told that there is interplay between the film (released 1991) and the book, though the book certainly stands alone quite successfully. I have not yet seen Dash's film, but intend to. (My friend, author Robert Jordan, said after seeing the film years ago that had he moved away from Carolina, seeing this film would have made him homesick and wish to return.) The richness of the characters and story, interwoven with the telling of the lies (stories) which give back-history created a fabulous tapestry. One other element, which completely captured me, was the sprinkling of potions and recipes for charms through the book. (The first one, on page 23, I told my friend Mary about, since she makes soaps and aromatherapy scents. I'm going to try it, too: "Mix 75 drops of peppermint oil with 35 drops of eucalyptus oil, 10 drops of clove, and 1/2 cup of spring water. Shake the mixture around the four corners of the room to bring the nature inside. As the mixture ages, the scent will become stronger."
I usually don't give a synopsis of a story in my reviews, and will carry on that tradition. However, I will say, this is a marvelous "lie" told by Julie Dash. show less
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Author Information
9+ Works 285 Members
A graduate of the American Film Institute and the University of California at Los Angeles film programs, Dash is perhaps the best-known African American female filmmaker in America. Her critical acclaim is founded on the success of her 1982 short, Illusions, which won Best Film of the Decade from the Black Filmmaker Foundation, as well as several show more other national and international awards. The film's protagonist is an African American female executive in the film industry of the 1940s, Mignon Dupree, who is passing as white without making an effort to do so; her coworkers simply assume that she is white. She is also imitating a masculine identity to the degree that she dresses and acts to discourage being eroticized by the white men with whom she must work as an equal. During the course of the film, Mignon finds that passing for white is oppressive, and she begins to assert her identity as an African American. Dash has also made a feature-length film, Daughters of the Dust (1991), which has been widely exhibited and also broadcast on public television's American Playhouse series. Like Illusions, it is concerned with the articulation and affirmation of African American identity. It focuses on the turn-of-the-century Gullah culture of the Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast, which has retained many West African traditions, particularly religious and occult practices. Dash sees this film and Illusions as part of a series that she hopes to make on the experiences of African American women in the United States in the twentieth century. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Daughters of the Dust
- People/Characters
- Amelia Peazant; Elizabeth
- Important places
- Sea Islands, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the novel which follows the lives of the characters to whom Dash introduced us in her film of the same name. Please do not combine this book with ... (show all)et="_new">Daughters of the dust : the making of an African American woman's film. Thanks.
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- Members
- 151
- Popularity
- 217,449
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.71)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
