Description
Book SynopsisBlack British Feminism: A Reader is a unique collection of classic texts and new black feminist scholarship. Exploring postmodern themes of gendered and racialized exclusion, ''black'' identity and social and cultural difference this volume provides an overview of black feminism in Britain as it has developed during the last two decades.
Among the topics covered are:
* white feminism
* political activism
* ''mixed-race'' identity
* class differences
* cultural hybridity
* autobiography
* black beauty
* religious fundamentalism
* national belonging
* lesbian identity
* postcolonial space
* popular culture
This timely and important book is essential reading for students and scholars of cultural studies, women''s studies, sociology, literature and postcolonial studies.
Trade Review'A must for anyone with an interest in gender issues written from a Black British context.' - Pride Magazine
'This new collection brings together articles which have had an important influence on British Feminism ... the complex and sometimes strained effort to comprehend how to define space and change one's place presents the reader with a glimpse of new possibilities.' - Sage Race Relations Abstracts, May 1998
'This collection of essays by black feminists is the first one entirely related to the black women's experience in Britain, and as such is a welcome and important addition to feminist scholarship. This is a diverse, scholarly and highly interesting collection of essays which make a serious contribution to our knowledge of the situation of black women in Britain today.' - Fawcett Library Newsletter, May 1998
'An astute selection of essays with a genuinely multidisciplinary orientation a landmark book making accessible a significant proportion of the history of black feminism in late twentieth-century Britain.' - Interventions 1(4)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Contributors Introduction: Mapping a Geneology of Black British Feminism Heidi Safia Mirza, South Bank University I. Shaping the Debate 1. Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain Amrit Wilson 2. Black Women, the Economic Crisis and the British State Amina Mama 3. Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe 4. White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boudaries of Sisterhood Hazel V. Carby 5. Challenging Imperial Feminism Valarie Amos and Pratibha Parmar 6. Transforming Socialist Feminism: The Challenge of Racism Kum-Kum Bhavnani and Margaret Coulson 7. Theories of Gender and Black Families Anne Phoenix 8. Other Kinds of Dreams Pratibha Parmar 9. Feminism and the Challenge of Racism: Deviance or Difference? Razia Aziz II. Defining Our Space 10. Raregrooves and Raregroovers: A Matter of Taste, Difference and Identity Bibi Bakare-Yusuf 11. (Mis)Representing the Black (Super)Woman Tracey Reynolds 12. Shades of Blackness: Young Black Female Constructions of Beauty Debbie Weekes, Nottingham Trent University 13. Diaspora's Daughters, Africa's Orphans?: On Lineage, Authenticity, and 'Mixed-Race' Identity Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe, University of East London 14. 'It's a sun tan, isn't it?': Auto-biography as an Identificatory Practice Sara Ahmed, Lancaster University 15. Charting the Spaces of (un)Location: On Theorising Diaspora Magdalene Ang-Lygate 16. Fractured or Flexible Identities? Life Histories of 'Black' Diasporic Women in Britain Naz Rassool, University of Reading 17. In my Father's House there are Many Mansions: The Nation and the Postcolonial Desire Nalini Persram 18. Two Stories, Three Lovers and the Creation of Meaning in a Black Lesbian Autobiography: A Diary Consuelo Rivera Fuentes, Lancaster University 19. My Body, Myself: How Does a Black Woman Do Sociology? Felly Nkweto Simmonds, University of Northumbria, Newcastle Upon Tyne 20. The Fabulous Adventures of the Mahogany Princesses Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of Birmingham III. Changing Our Place 21. Third Wave Feminism and Black Women's Activism Pragna Patel 22. Black Women in Education: A Collective Movement for Social Change Heidi Safia Mirza, South Bank University, London 23. The Language of 'Womanism': Rethinking 'Difference' Helen (charles) Bibliography
