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The Tradition of Old People's Ways: Gee's Bend Quilts and Slave Quilts of the Deep South

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From Uncoverings 2005, Volume 26 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group

2005

By: McKay, Melanie; Stewart, Maaja

Melanie McKay, PhD in Contemporary Literature, is Associate Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. She teaches women's studies, critical theory, and the literature of New Orleans and has published on Toni Morrison. Dr. McKay is interested in the representation of cloth and fashion in literary texts as signifiers of race, class, and gender. She and Dr. Stewart are co-authoring a book on cloth production and fashions in the history, culture, and literature of the Deep South. Maaja Stewart, PhD in British literature, has published Domestic Realities and Imperial Fictions and numerous articles, including the chapter "Fashion" in The South: the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures (2004). Dr. Stewart is particularly interested in the use of cloth and color by different cultures in an area of complex inter-racial meetings such as New Orleans and French Louisiana. She is also a textile artist who has experimented with dyes, paints, and other surface manipulations of cloth in quilts and clothing. She and Dr. McKay are co-authoring a book on cloth production and fashions in the history, culture, and literature of the Deep South.