Weaving the Word: The Metaphorics of Weaving and Female Textual Production

In Weaving the Word Kathryn Sullivan Kruger examines the link between written texts and woven textiles. Encoded by pattern, symbol, and dye, textiles offer an important form of communication heretofore ignored. Kruger asserts that before written texts could record and preserve the stories of a culture, cloth was one of the primary modes for transmitting social beliefs and messages. Moreover, when reestablishing the connection between the written text and the textile, Kruger concedes that a significant relationship exists between women, who wove textiles, and textual production. By recuperating a textile history and including it in our awareness of literary history, we will recover a large community of female authorship and perspective. Through an analysis of specific weaving stories, the difference between a text and a textile becomes blurred. Such stories portray women weavers transforming their domestic activity of making textiles into one of making texts by inscribing their cloth with both personal and political messages. Kruger draws from various disciplines to show how textiles constitute another form of literature. Her engaging and provocative inquire raises important issues for any reader interested in literature, communication, and the power of the word.