The Black Feminist Reader [Paperback]

Joy James (Editor), T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0631210075 | ISBN-13: 978-0631210078 | Edition: 1

Organized into two parts, "Literary Theory" and "Social and Political Theory," this Reader explores issues of community, identity, justice, and the marginalization of African American and Caribbean women in literature, society, and political movements.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This collection is certain to become another essential text in the field of women's studies, replacing sociologist Patricia Hill Collins's Black Feminist Thought (Routledge, 1990) as the primary black women's studies text. The editors have gathered ten highly anthologized essays form the last 25 years by black feminist literary, social, and political theorists, as well as three landmark documents from the black feminist movement. Essayists include bell hooks, Angela Davis, and Toni Morrison, as well as writers less well known outside the academy. Unfortunately, there are no essays on the arts and popular culture, and no black feminist lesbian voices are represented. Although this anthology will be sought after and read both inside and outside academe, Beverly Guy-Sheftall's thick Words of Fire (New Pr., 1995) is still the most comprehensive collection of black feminist thought, with writings from the early 1800s to the 1980s. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
Sherri Barnes, Univ. of California Lib., Santa Barbara
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This volume brings together ten essays in the development of black feminism. The selections reflect the literary, social and political critiques that mark this form of feminist and antiracist thought as unique and transformative." Black Issues Book Review

"This collection is certain to become another essential text in the field of women's studies. . . Recommended for public and academic libraries." Library Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (June 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631210075
• ISBN-13: 978-0631210078
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCELLENT AND BROAD SELECTION OF ESSAYS, December 1, 2010

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Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Black Feminist Reader (Paperback)

Joy James is Visiting Professor/John B. and John T. McCoy Presidential Professor of the Humanities and College Professor in Political Science at Williams College. Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting is a feminist scholar and Distinguished Professor of French in the Department of French and Italian at the Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science.

They state in the Preface to this 2000 collection, "in our estimation the following essays best reflect the literary, social, and political critiques that mark this area of feminism as singular, controversial, and trnasformative. The ten essays reprinted here were written during the last twenty-five years by intellectuals who address key themes within black feminisms: the intersections of sex, gender, and race, sometimes class and ideology."

Contributors include Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and others; Joy James contributes an essay, as well. Titles of essays include, "A Black Man's Place in Black Feminist Criticism"; "Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory"; "Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation"; "The Social Consciousness of Black Feminist Thought"; "Radicalizing Feminism," etc.