Teaching Cross-Racial Texts: Cultural Theft in The Secret Life of Bees

Laurie Grobman

White author Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees employs stereotypes of African Americans and problematically appropriates features of Black writing. Nevertheless, this book is worth teaching, not only because it has acquired much cultural capital but also because it offers students a way to examine relationships between whites and Blacks in American literature and culture.

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