ABSTRACT
Bakhtin's privileging if the dialogic rests upon a similar awareness of the dangers of unified thinking and the liberative potential of dialogic subversions. Dostoevsky, the examplar of dialogic thinking, succeeds not by creating a single consciousness at the center of the text but by presenting 'a whole formed by the interaction of several consciousnesses, none of which entirely becomes an object for the other'. African-Americans had to demonstrate their very humanity by being able to write when public strictures expressly forbade schooling for them. The folkloric intent of the tale is the strengthening of the institution of the family. Girls are reminded that growing up as wives or slaves is a mark of mediocrity, failure. They have the potential to be 'heroines, swordswomen'. But the task of the swordswoman is similar to that of a wife: maintaining the family honor.
