17 pages 34 minutes read

Natasha Trethewey

History Lesson

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2000

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Themes

The Personal is Historical

In an article in the New York Times on June 6, 2012, in response to her mother’s death by murder, Natasha Trethewey is quoted as saying, “that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened" (McGrath, Charles, “New Laureate Looks Deep Into Memory”). The phrase, “the personal is political” and also “the private is political” were slogans of second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, indicating a belief that personal experience was deeply influenced by the social and political inequities of the time. In the case of Trethewey’s body of work, which spans centuries as well as the specific incidents of her and her family’s lives, the personal is historical in that one generation’s experience evolves from the experience of previous generations—even more specifically, of African American and mixed-race people living in the United States.

Trethewey’s perspective as a poet and historian is directly influenced by events and situations personally experienced by her and/or her family, as well as by people throughout US history. Institutional racism takes hold and is perpetuated through the everyday rites and rituals of, say, a day at

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By Natasha Trethewey

Plot Summary

logo

Beyond Katrina

Natasha Trethewey

Beyond Katrina

Natasha Trethewey

Study Guide

logo

Elegy for the Native Guards

Natasha Trethewey

Elegy for the Native Guards

Natasha Trethewey

Study Guide

logo

Graveyard Blues

Natasha Trethewey

Graveyard Blues

Natasha Trethewey

Study Guide

logo

Memorial Drive

Natasha Trethewey

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir

Natasha Trethewey

Plot Summary

logo

Native Guard

Natasha Trethewey

Native Guard

Natasha Trethewey

Study Guide

logo

Theories of Time and Space

Natasha Trethewey

Theories of Time and Space

Natasha Trethewey