Culture-bearing women : the Black women renaissance and cultural nationalism /
Penier, Izabella, 1971-
Culture-bearing women : the Black women renaissance and cultural nationalism / Izabella Penier. - 1 online resource (220 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-210) and index.
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: The Black Women Renaissance, Matrilineal Romances and the "Volkish Tradition" -- Mapping the Black Women's Renaissance: The Formative 1970s and the Shift from a Black Nationalist to a Black Womanist Aesthetic -- Matrifocal Nationalism, Afrocentric Womanism and the Fear of Disinheritance -- Kulturnation: The Black Women's Renaissance, Folk Heritage and the Essential Black Female Matrix -- Volknation: The Black Holocaust and the Poetics of the Slave Sublime -- Culturalism, Classism, and the Politics of Redistribution -- Bibliography -- Index 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Open Access
This study examines the Black Women's Renaissance (BWR) - the flowering of literary talent among African American women at the end of the 20th century. It focuses on the historical and heritage novels of the 1980s and the vexed relationship between black cultural nationalism and black feminism. It argues that when the nation seemingly fell out of fashion, black women writers sought to re-create what Renan called "a soul, a spiritual principle" for their ethnic group. BWR narratives, especially those associated with womanism, appreciated "culture bearing" mothers as cultural reproducers of the nation and transmitters of its values. In this way, the writers of the BWR gave rise to "matrifocal" cultural nationalism that superseded masculine cultural nationalism of the previous decade and made black women, instead of black men, principal agents/carriers of national identity. This monograph argues that even though matrifocal nationalism empowered women, ultimately it was a flawed project. It promoted gender and cultural essentialism, id est it glorified black motherhood and mother-daughter bonding and condemned other, more radical models of black female subjectivity. Moreover, the BWR, vivified by middle-class and educated black women, turned readers' attention from more contentious social issues, such as class mobility or wealth redistribution. The monograph compares the cultural nationalist novels of the 1980s with social protest novels written by the same authors in the 1970s and explains the rationale behind the change in their aesthetic and political agenda. It also contrasts novels written by womanist writers (Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor to name just a few) and by African Caribbean immigrant or second-generation writers (Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Jamaica Kincaid and Michelle Cliff) to show that, on the score of cultural nationalism, the BWR was not a monolithic phenomenon. African American and African Caribbean women writers collectively contributed to the flourishing of the BWR, but they did not share the same ideas on black identities, histories, or the question of ethnonational belonging.
In English.
9788395609558 8395609558 8395609566 9788395609565
10.1515/9788395609558 doi
1900-1999
African American women authors--20th century.
Women authors, Black--20th century.
Women authors, Caribbean--20th century.
Women, Black, in literature.
Womanism in literature.
Feminism in literature.
Race awareness in literature.
Black nationalism in literature.
Ethnocentrism.
Intersectionality (Sociology)
African American women authors--Political and social views--History--20th century.
Women authors, Black--Political and social views--History--20th century.
Women authors, Caribbean--Political and social views--History--20th century.
LITERARY COLLECTIONS--General.
African American women authors.
Black nationalism in literature.
Ethnocentrism.
Feminism in literature.
Intersectionality (Sociology)
Race awareness in literature.
Womanism in literature.
Women authors, Black.
Women authors, Caribbean.
Women, Black, in literature.
History.
Electronic books.
PN56.R16 / P46 2019eb
810
Culture-bearing women : the Black women renaissance and cultural nationalism / Izabella Penier. - 1 online resource (220 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-210) and index.
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: The Black Women Renaissance, Matrilineal Romances and the "Volkish Tradition" -- Mapping the Black Women's Renaissance: The Formative 1970s and the Shift from a Black Nationalist to a Black Womanist Aesthetic -- Matrifocal Nationalism, Afrocentric Womanism and the Fear of Disinheritance -- Kulturnation: The Black Women's Renaissance, Folk Heritage and the Essential Black Female Matrix -- Volknation: The Black Holocaust and the Poetics of the Slave Sublime -- Culturalism, Classism, and the Politics of Redistribution -- Bibliography -- Index 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Open Access
This study examines the Black Women's Renaissance (BWR) - the flowering of literary talent among African American women at the end of the 20th century. It focuses on the historical and heritage novels of the 1980s and the vexed relationship between black cultural nationalism and black feminism. It argues that when the nation seemingly fell out of fashion, black women writers sought to re-create what Renan called "a soul, a spiritual principle" for their ethnic group. BWR narratives, especially those associated with womanism, appreciated "culture bearing" mothers as cultural reproducers of the nation and transmitters of its values. In this way, the writers of the BWR gave rise to "matrifocal" cultural nationalism that superseded masculine cultural nationalism of the previous decade and made black women, instead of black men, principal agents/carriers of national identity. This monograph argues that even though matrifocal nationalism empowered women, ultimately it was a flawed project. It promoted gender and cultural essentialism, id est it glorified black motherhood and mother-daughter bonding and condemned other, more radical models of black female subjectivity. Moreover, the BWR, vivified by middle-class and educated black women, turned readers' attention from more contentious social issues, such as class mobility or wealth redistribution. The monograph compares the cultural nationalist novels of the 1980s with social protest novels written by the same authors in the 1970s and explains the rationale behind the change in their aesthetic and political agenda. It also contrasts novels written by womanist writers (Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor to name just a few) and by African Caribbean immigrant or second-generation writers (Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Jamaica Kincaid and Michelle Cliff) to show that, on the score of cultural nationalism, the BWR was not a monolithic phenomenon. African American and African Caribbean women writers collectively contributed to the flourishing of the BWR, but they did not share the same ideas on black identities, histories, or the question of ethnonational belonging.
In English.
9788395609558 8395609558 8395609566 9788395609565
10.1515/9788395609558 doi
1900-1999
African American women authors--20th century.
Women authors, Black--20th century.
Women authors, Caribbean--20th century.
Women, Black, in literature.
Womanism in literature.
Feminism in literature.
Race awareness in literature.
Black nationalism in literature.
Ethnocentrism.
Intersectionality (Sociology)
African American women authors--Political and social views--History--20th century.
Women authors, Black--Political and social views--History--20th century.
Women authors, Caribbean--Political and social views--History--20th century.
LITERARY COLLECTIONS--General.
African American women authors.
Black nationalism in literature.
Ethnocentrism.
Feminism in literature.
Intersectionality (Sociology)
Race awareness in literature.
Womanism in literature.
Women authors, Black.
Women authors, Caribbean.
Women, Black, in literature.
History.
Electronic books.
PN56.R16 / P46 2019eb
810