From curlers to chainsaws : women and their machines / edited by Joyce Dyer, Jennifer Cognard-Black, and Elizabeth MacLeod Walls.

Includes bibliographical references.

Print version record.

"The twenty-three distinguished writers included in From Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines invite machines into their lives and onto the page. In every room and landscape these writers occupy, gadgets that both stir and stymie may be found: a Singer sewing machine, a stove, a gun, a vibrator, a prosthetic limb, a tractor, a Dodge Dart, a microphone, a smartphone, a stapler, a No. 1 pencil and, of course, a curling iron and a chainsaw. From Curlers to Chainsaws is a groundbreaking collection of lyrical and illuminating essays about the serious, silly, seductive, and sometimes sorrowful relationships between women and their machines. This collection explores in depth objects we sometimes take for granted, focusing not only on their functions but also on their powers to inform identity. For each writer, the device moves beyond the functional to become a symbolic extension of the writer's own mind--altering and deepening each woman's concept of herself"--Publisher's description.

Hearth and home. Maytag washer, 1939 / Norma Tilden -- My mother's Singer / Joyce Dyer -- If you can't stand the heat : ruminations on the stove from an African American woman / Psyche Williams-Forson -- Sad-iron, glad-iron / Rebecca McClanahan -- Grip / Joy Castro -- Bedroom and birthing room. Of vibrators / E.J. Levy -- The hot thing / Jennifer Cognard-Black -- Beautiful monster : life with a prosthetic limb / Emily Rapp -- Midwife hands, mother hands / Monica Frantz -- Farm, lawn, hill, and wood. Tsantas and the mind-expanding power of a small machine / Mary Swander -- Old iron : a restoration / Mary Quade -- All flesh is grass / Maureen Stanton -- Driven / Karen Salyer McElmurray -- More than noise / Ana Maria Spagna -- Stage and world. The microphone erotic / Debra Marquart -- I, Phone / Elizabeth MacLeod Walls -- Body, camera, self / Melissa A. Goldthwaite -- Lebanese airwaves / Diana Salman -- Remembered is misremembered, then turns / Monica Berlin -- The writer's studio. Swingline nine / Jen Hirt -- The qwertyist / Sue William Silverman -- On typing and salvation / Karen Outen -- Inquisitor and insurgent : Black woman with pencil, sharpened / Nikky Finney.

English.

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