About: Black Girl / White Girl

Black Girl / White Girl is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates first published in 2006. It takes the form of an untitled 300 page manuscript written in 1990 by Generva Meade, a white historian, who truthfully recounts the events which happened during her first year at a prestigious liberal college in 1974–75, and Meade's own paternal family history which uncomfortably spans the gap between a proud history of progressive thinking and subsequent revolutionary and violent ideas. The action on the stage is played by a Black conservative Christian who reluctantly attends the school on a scholarship and encounters racial discrimination there. Subsequent events and her own disintegrating mental health lead to a personal and institutional tragedy.