Theories of Time and Space

“Miscegenation” by Natasha Trethewey (2006)

This poem, also from Trethewey’s award-winning Native Guard collection, deals intimately with the history of racism in Mississippi, as well as Trethewey’s feelings about her familial and personal identity. “Miscegenation,” like “Theories of Time and Space,” considers memory in a personal and historical sense.

“History Lesson” by Natasha Trethewey (2000)

“History Lesson,” from Trethewey’s Domestic Work collection, focuses on her childhood in Mississippi; like many of Trethewey’s other works, “History Lesson” considers the racially discriminatory laws of Mississippi through the lens of personal experience.

“Myth” by Natasha Trethewey (2006)

Trethewey’s “Myth” follows more formal constraints than many of other poems. It uses a repetitive form and refrain in order to contemplate personal loss. “Myth” essentially mythologizes personal loss and grief through continued returns to the same lines, themes, and feelings.

"Interracial Marriage Laws History and Timeline" by Tom Head for ThoughtCo (2021)

Race and racial injustice play important roles in Trethewey’s work, and she often reflects upon these things in tandem with her personal experiences growing up in Gulfport, Mississippi during the 1960s and 1970s. To understand the historical and personal frameworks of Trethewey’s work, it is important to possess a basic understanding of the civil rights movement of the late-20th century and the reality of Jim Crow and other discriminatory laws that were still common in the United States during that time.