Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzing contemporaneous and contemporary works that re-imagine the "Hottentot Venus"; reflections on the representation of a black female icon
Trade Review"Willis (Posing Beauty) offers a comprehensive, inclusive, and coherently organized anthology that embraces 'scholarly and lyrical, historical and reflexive' responses to Baartman, as a woman, as a black woman, as an object, as an icon, as an inspiration to creative artists, and as a catalyst to scholars. The book moves from Baartman's life and times to an assessment of the figure of the "Hottentot Venus" in contemporary art and a broader consideration of the historic public display of black women. Appended is a photo gallery that is as essential and diverse as the texts. This remarkable volume satisfies the academic reader with scholarly essays and moves the general reader with its creative expression, making it fascinating and accessible to any one." -Publishers Weekly
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue: The Venus Hottentot (1825) Elizabeth Alexander
Introduction: The Notion of Venus Deborah Willis
PART I: Sarah Baartman in Context
1. The Hottentot and the Prostitute: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality Sander Gilman
2. Another Means of Understanding the Gaze: Sarah Bartmann in the Development of Nineteenth-Century French National Identity Robin Mitchell
3. Which Bodies Matter? Feminism, Post-Structuralism, Race, and the Curious Theoretical Odyssey of the “Hottentot Venus” Zine Magubane
4. Exhibit A: Private Life without a Narrative J. Yolande Daniels
5. crucifix Holly Bass
PART II: Sarah Baartman’s Legacy in Art and Art History
6. Historic Retrievals: Confronting Visual Evidence and the Imaging of Truth Lisa Gail Collins
7. Reclaiming Venus: The Presence of Sarah Bartmann in Contemporary Art Debra S. Singer
8. Playing with Venus: Black Women Artists and the Venus Trope in Contemporary Visual Art Kianga K. Ford
9. Talk of the Town Manthia Diawara
10. The “Hottentot Venus” in Canada: Modernism, Censorship, and the Racial Limits of Female Sexuality Charmaine Nelson
11. A.K.A. Saartjie: The “Hottentot Venus” in Context (Some Recollections and a Dialogue), 1998/2004 Kellie Jones
12. little sarah Linda Susan Jackson
PART III: Sarah Baartman and Black Women as Public Spectacle
13. The Greatest Show on Earth: For Saartjie Baartman, Joice Heth, Anarcha of Alabama, Truuginini, and Us All Nikky Finney
14. The Imperial Gaze: Venus Hottentot, Human Display, and World’s Fairs Michele Wallace
15. Cinderella Tours Europe Cheryl Finley
16. Mirror Sisters: Aunt Jemima as the Antonym/Extension of Saartjie Bartmann Michael D. Harris
17. My Wife as Venus E. Ethelbert Miller
PART IV: Iconic Women in the Twentieth Century/b>
18. agape Holly Bass
19. Black/Female/Bodies Carnivalized in Spectacle and Space Carole Boyce Davies
20. Sighting the “Real” Josephine Baker: Methods and Issues of Black Star Studies Terri Francis
21. The Hoodrat Theory William Jelani Cobb
Epilogue: I’ve Come to Take You Home (Tribute to Sarah Bartmann Written in Holland, June 1998)
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
