Description
Book Synopsis
Black Internationalist Feminism examines how African American women writers affiliated themselves with the post-World War II Black Communist Left and developed a distinct strand of feminism. This vital yet largely overlooked feminist tradition built upon and critically retheorized the postwar Left''s 'nationalist internationalism,' which connected the liberation of Blacks in the United States to the liberation of Third World nations and the worldwide proletariat. Black internationalist feminism critiques racist, heteronormative, and masculinist articulations of nationalism while maintaining the importance of national liberation movements for achieving Black women''s social, political, and economic rights.
Cheryl Higashida shows how Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou worked within and against established literary forms to demonstrate that nationalist internationalism was linked to struggles against
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"Indispensable reading for the project of intellectual decolonization of the Cold War era."--Against the Current
"A powerful revisioning of the relationship between black feminism and nationalism."--The Journal of American History
"This unique study opens up fascinating new areas of discussion in feminism, literary studies, and political history. Highly recommended."--Choice
Table of Contents
CoverTitle pageCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Black Internationalist Feminism: A Definition1. The Negro Question, the Woman Question, and the "Vital Link": Histories and Institutions2. Lorraine Hansberry's Existentialist Routes to Black Internationalist Feminism3. Rosalind on the Black Star Line: Alice Childress, Black Minstrelsy, and Garveyite Drag4. Rosa Guy, Haiti, and the Hemispheric Woman5. Audre Lorde Revisited: Nationalism and Second-Wave Black Feminism6. Reading Maya Angelou, Reading Black Internationalist Feminism TodayNotesBibliographyIndex
