Nazera Sadiq Wright
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040573
- eISBN:
- 9780252099014
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040573.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter examines the first writings of black women about girlhood during the antebellum era, with particular emphasis on the trope of the self-reliant black girl in the face of adversity. After ...
More
This chapter examines the first writings of black women about girlhood during the antebellum era, with particular emphasis on the trope of the self-reliant black girl in the face of adversity. After reviewing representations of black girlhood in early American children's print culture, the chapter turns to some of the first short stories and full-length books by black women that centered on the lives of black girls. Focusing on the work of Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Wilson, and Maria W. Stewart along with an abolitionist text imported from England, it considers how black women writers distinguished between youthful girlhood and knowing girlhood to challenge the prevailing attitude on southern plantations that black girls were valuable solely for their future fecundity and economic potential. By revealing the qualities and behaviors exhibited by black girls across literary genres, black women writers showed that black girls were capable of seeking their own fate.Less
This chapter examines the first writings of black women about girlhood during the antebellum era, with particular emphasis on the trope of the self-reliant black girl in the face of adversity. After reviewing representations of black girlhood in early American children's print culture, the chapter turns to some of the first short stories and full-length books by black women that centered on the lives of black girls. Focusing on the work of Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Wilson, and Maria W. Stewart along with an abolitionist text imported from England, it considers how black women writers distinguished between youthful girlhood and knowing girlhood to challenge the prevailing attitude on southern plantations that black girls were valuable solely for their future fecundity and economic potential. By revealing the qualities and behaviors exhibited by black girls across literary genres, black women writers showed that black girls were capable of seeking their own fate.
L. H. Stallings
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039591
- eISBN:
- 9780252097683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039591.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter begins with a brief analysis of the sexual and racial politics of the Life Always antichoice billboard campaign. It argues that black women writers' participation in what might be ...
More
This chapter begins with a brief analysis of the sexual and racial politics of the Life Always antichoice billboard campaign. It argues that black women writers' participation in what might be considered pornographic industries promotes a form of guerilla warfare, whose objective is to protect and secure women's erotic sovereignty and reproductive freedom. While funk and porn have each been hystericized as the province of men, funk is also viewed as an affective technology that can sustain reciprocal interactions that would improve the lives of women and, in the end, the men and children in their lives. The chapter shows how the way women pursue the terms of their liberation underscores the radical possibilities of what it means to desire versus to be an object of desire, and to create versus to produce.Less
This chapter begins with a brief analysis of the sexual and racial politics of the Life Always antichoice billboard campaign. It argues that black women writers' participation in what might be considered pornographic industries promotes a form of guerilla warfare, whose objective is to protect and secure women's erotic sovereignty and reproductive freedom. While funk and porn have each been hystericized as the province of men, funk is also viewed as an affective technology that can sustain reciprocal interactions that would improve the lives of women and, in the end, the men and children in their lives. The chapter shows how the way women pursue the terms of their liberation underscores the radical possibilities of what it means to desire versus to be an object of desire, and to create versus to produce.
Hannah Durkin
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042621
- eISBN:
- 9780252051463
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042621.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This book investigates African American dancers Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham’s self-inventions on screen and in writing to map the intellectual underpinnings and visual impact of their art. ...
More
This book investigates African American dancers Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham’s self-inventions on screen and in writing to map the intellectual underpinnings and visual impact of their art. Baker was the first Black woman to enjoy a starring role in mainstream cinema and Dunham was the first Black choreographer to be credited for her screen work. Equally, they were the first well-known African American women to produce multivolume accounts of their lives, and their writings serve as valuable firsthand documents of Black women’s interwar experiences. Why did Baker and Dunham enjoy such groundbreaking literary and cinematic careers? What do such careers tell us about the challenges and opportunities that they encountered as African American women seeking to navigate midcentury geographical and cultural boundaries? Why did they turn to life writing and the screen and on what terms were they able to engage with these mediums as Black women? How did contemporary Black screen audiences receive their work? Where do Baker and Dunham’s films and writings fit into African American literary and cinematic histories and why are they largely absent from these histories? This book investigates these questions. In so doing, it uncovers the cultural significance of Baker and Dunham’s films and writings and interrogates their performances within them to recover their authorship.Less
This book investigates African American dancers Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham’s self-inventions on screen and in writing to map the intellectual underpinnings and visual impact of their art. Baker was the first Black woman to enjoy a starring role in mainstream cinema and Dunham was the first Black choreographer to be credited for her screen work. Equally, they were the first well-known African American women to produce multivolume accounts of their lives, and their writings serve as valuable firsthand documents of Black women’s interwar experiences. Why did Baker and Dunham enjoy such groundbreaking literary and cinematic careers? What do such careers tell us about the challenges and opportunities that they encountered as African American women seeking to navigate midcentury geographical and cultural boundaries? Why did they turn to life writing and the screen and on what terms were they able to engage with these mediums as Black women? How did contemporary Black screen audiences receive their work? Where do Baker and Dunham’s films and writings fit into African American literary and cinematic histories and why are they largely absent from these histories? This book investigates these questions. In so doing, it uncovers the cultural significance of Baker and Dunham’s films and writings and interrogates their performances within them to recover their authorship.
Donna Aza Weir-Soley
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813033778
- eISBN:
- 9780813039008
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813033778.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
For the black female subject in the New World, the separation between the sexual and the spiritual had to be maintained within the framework of black women's historical subjugation, not just ...
More
For the black female subject in the New World, the separation between the sexual and the spiritual had to be maintained within the framework of black women's historical subjugation, not just physically, but more significantly, sexually. Therefore, the central challenges for black women writers have revolved around the issue of how to represent black female characters as both sexual and spiritual beings while working within the constraints of a discursive tradition that historically maligned black women as sexual deviants. The discussion here foregrounds the interrelatedness of identity, autonomy, sexuality, and spirituality in black women's writings. It argues that spiritual processes are necessary for subject formation, and highlight the spiritual practices, perspectives, and theories that inform black female subjectivity, agency, and autonomy.Less
For the black female subject in the New World, the separation between the sexual and the spiritual had to be maintained within the framework of black women's historical subjugation, not just physically, but more significantly, sexually. Therefore, the central challenges for black women writers have revolved around the issue of how to represent black female characters as both sexual and spiritual beings while working within the constraints of a discursive tradition that historically maligned black women as sexual deviants. The discussion here foregrounds the interrelatedness of identity, autonomy, sexuality, and spirituality in black women's writings. It argues that spiritual processes are necessary for subject formation, and highlight the spiritual practices, perspectives, and theories that inform black female subjectivity, agency, and autonomy.
Joanne Veal Gabbin (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732740
- eISBN:
- 9781604734713
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732740.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This book offers short chapters by notable black women writers on pivotal moments that strongly influenced their careers. With chapters by such figures as novelist Paule Marshall, folklorist Daryl ...
More
This book offers short chapters by notable black women writers on pivotal moments that strongly influenced their careers. With chapters by such figures as novelist Paule Marshall, folklorist Daryl Cumber Dance, poets Mari Evans and Camille Dungy, essayist Ethel Morgan Smith, and scholar Maryemma Graham, the anthology provides a thorough overview of the formal concerns and thematic issues facing contemporary black women writers. The book includes an introduction that places these writers in the context of American literature in general and African American literature in particular. Each chapter includes a headnote summarizing the writer’s career and aesthetic development. In their pieces these women negotiate educational institutions and societal restrictions and find their voices despite racism, sexism, and religious chauvinism. They offer strong testimony to the power of words to heal, transform, and renew.Less
This book offers short chapters by notable black women writers on pivotal moments that strongly influenced their careers. With chapters by such figures as novelist Paule Marshall, folklorist Daryl Cumber Dance, poets Mari Evans and Camille Dungy, essayist Ethel Morgan Smith, and scholar Maryemma Graham, the anthology provides a thorough overview of the formal concerns and thematic issues facing contemporary black women writers. The book includes an introduction that places these writers in the context of American literature in general and African American literature in particular. Each chapter includes a headnote summarizing the writer’s career and aesthetic development. In their pieces these women negotiate educational institutions and societal restrictions and find their voices despite racism, sexism, and religious chauvinism. They offer strong testimony to the power of words to heal, transform, and renew.
Jennifer M. Wilks
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677382
- eISBN:
- 9781452947877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677382.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter explores Paulette Nardal’s triumvirate of gender (“women students”), geography (“Paris”), and nation (“metropolis”) and how it operates in her work as well as in that of her U.S. ...
More
This chapter explores Paulette Nardal’s triumvirate of gender (“women students”), geography (“Paris”), and nation (“metropolis”) and how it operates in her work as well as in that of her U.S. contemporary Jessie Redmon Fauset. In her 1932 essay “Eveil de la Conscience de Race” (“Awakening of Race Consciousness”), Nardal, a Martinican intellectual, argues that the construct of gender is as important as geography and nation in the articulation of racial identities. This chapter considers how—or why—Paris serves as a narrative, social, or personal catalyst for Nardal’s and Fauset’s respective autobiographical and fictional personae. It examines the role of Paris in Fauset’s African American women and highlights the French city as an instrumental modernist crossroads where black women writers such as Nardal and Fauset negotiated intersecting categories of identity both in their own lives and in those of their characters. It also discusses how African diasporic intellectuals incorporated gender into their understandings of modern black identities in ways that challenged the masculinism of the Harlem Renaissance and Negritude.Less
This chapter explores Paulette Nardal’s triumvirate of gender (“women students”), geography (“Paris”), and nation (“metropolis”) and how it operates in her work as well as in that of her U.S. contemporary Jessie Redmon Fauset. In her 1932 essay “Eveil de la Conscience de Race” (“Awakening of Race Consciousness”), Nardal, a Martinican intellectual, argues that the construct of gender is as important as geography and nation in the articulation of racial identities. This chapter considers how—or why—Paris serves as a narrative, social, or personal catalyst for Nardal’s and Fauset’s respective autobiographical and fictional personae. It examines the role of Paris in Fauset’s African American women and highlights the French city as an instrumental modernist crossroads where black women writers such as Nardal and Fauset negotiated intersecting categories of identity both in their own lives and in those of their characters. It also discusses how African diasporic intellectuals incorporated gender into their understandings of modern black identities in ways that challenged the masculinism of the Harlem Renaissance and Negritude.
Samantha Pinto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814759486
- eISBN:
- 9780814789360
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814759486.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This book demonstrates the crucial role of aesthetics in defining the relationship between race, gender, and location. Thinking beyond national identity to include African, African American, ...
More
This book demonstrates the crucial role of aesthetics in defining the relationship between race, gender, and location. Thinking beyond national identity to include African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Black British literature, it brings together an innovative archive of twentieth-century texts marked by their break with conventional literary structures. These understudied resources mix genres, as in the memoir/ethnography/travel narrative Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston, and eschew linear narratives, as illustrated in the book-length, non-narrative poem by M. Nourbese Philip, She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks. Such an aesthetics, which protests against stable categories and fixed divisions, both reveals and obscures that which it seeks to represent: the experiences of Black women writers in the African diaspora. Drawing on postcolonial and feminist scholarship the book argues for the critical importance of cultural form and demands that we resist the impulse to prioritize traditional notions of geographic boundaries. Locating correspondences between seemingly disparate times and places, and across genres, the book fully engages the unique possibilities of literature and culture to redefine race and gender studies.Less
This book demonstrates the crucial role of aesthetics in defining the relationship between race, gender, and location. Thinking beyond national identity to include African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Black British literature, it brings together an innovative archive of twentieth-century texts marked by their break with conventional literary structures. These understudied resources mix genres, as in the memoir/ethnography/travel narrative Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston, and eschew linear narratives, as illustrated in the book-length, non-narrative poem by M. Nourbese Philip, She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks. Such an aesthetics, which protests against stable categories and fixed divisions, both reveals and obscures that which it seeks to represent: the experiences of Black women writers in the African diaspora. Drawing on postcolonial and feminist scholarship the book argues for the critical importance of cultural form and demands that we resist the impulse to prioritize traditional notions of geographic boundaries. Locating correspondences between seemingly disparate times and places, and across genres, the book fully engages the unique possibilities of literature and culture to redefine race and gender studies.
