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Black Feminist/Womanist Works: A Beginning List

Joya Misra

As promised, below is the *beginning* list of materials which include a womanist/black feminist standpoint. Since I am a sociologist, and since I haven't have the time to do a systematic search for black feminist work (most of this is off the top of my head, unfortunately), you'll find the list biased in certain directions, I'm sure. What I would really like is for people to email me with further recommendations.

For those who are interested, I am planning to work on a womanist list focused on womanist theory *outside* of the West this winter. This list focuses on black feminist thought within the US, and as such is a beginning for a wider approach to womanist works.

Please share this list with your friends, teachers, students, and anyone else who you think might be interested and might be able to make contributions to make it a better and more comprehensive list. Thanks!!

Joya Misra
misra @ soc.umass.edu

Beginning List for Black Feminist/Womanist Works:

(collected by Joya Misra, including citations from Annotated Bibliographies compiled by Sharon Jones & Trela N. Anderson and recommendations from Cynthia Burack, Marisa Pagnattaro, Angela Humphrey Brown, Sandy Martin, Jacqueline Haessly, and thanks to help from Barbara McCaskill)

 
Karen Adler.  1992.  "Always Leading Our Men in Service
and Sacrifice: Amy Jacques Garvey, Feminist Black
Nationalist."  Gender and Society.  6: 346-375.
 
Lisa Albrecht and Rose Brewer (eds.). 1990.  Bridges to
Power: Women's Multicultural  Alliances. Philadephia:
New Society Publishers.
 
Maya Angelou.  1969.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
NY: Bantam.
 
_____.  1974.  Gather Together in My Name.  NY: Random
House.
 
_____.  1978.  And Still I Rise.  NY: Random House.
 
_____.  1981.  The Heart of a Woman.  NY: Random
House.
 
_____.  1986. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes.
NY: Random House.
 
_____. 1990.  I Shall Not Be Moved.  NY: Random House.
 
_____.  1995.  A Brave and Startling Truth.  NY: Random
House.
 
Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thorton Dill (eds.).  1994.
Women of Color in U.S. Society. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press.
 
Frances M. Beal.  1970.  Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and
Female.  Detroit, Michigan: Radical Education Project.
 
Frances M. Beal.  1975.  "Slave of a Slave No More: Black
Women in Struggle."  Black Scholar. 6(6): 2-10.
 
Roseann P. Bell, Bettye J. Parker, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
(eds.) Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in
Literature.  Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.
 
Patricia Bell-Scott et al (eds.).  1991.  Double Stich: Black
Women Writers About Mothers and Daughters.  Boston:
Beacon Press.
 
Patricia Bell-Scott (ed.).  1994.  Life Notes: Personal
Writings by Contemporary Black Women.  New York:
Norton.
 
Kalwant Bhopal.  1995.  "Women and Feminism as
Subjects of Black Study -- the Difficulties and Dilemmas
of Carrying out Research."  Journal of Gender Studies.
4: 153-168.
 
Jacqueline Bobo.  1995.  Black Women as Cultural Readers.
NY: Columbia U Press.
 
Rose Brewer.  1989.  "Black Women and Feminist
Sociology: the Emerging Perspective." The American
Sociologist.  20: 57-70.
 
Elsa Barkley Brown.  1989.  "Womanist Consciousness:
Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint
Luke."  Signs.  14: 610-633.
 
Sherlon Brown, JoAnne Lipford Sanders, and Madeline
Shaw.  "Kujichagulia -- Uncovering the Secrets of the
Heart: Group Work with African American Women on
Predominantly White Campuses."  The Journal for
Specialists in Group Work.  20: 151-58.
 
Elly Bulkin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Barbara Smith.  1984.
Yours in Struggle:  Three Feminist Perspectives on anti-
Semitism and Racism.  Brooklyn, NY: Long Haul
Press.
 
Margaret Busby.  Daughers of Africa: An International
Anthology of Words and Writings from Women of
African Descent.  NY: Pantheon.
 
Toni Cade. 1970. The Black Woman: An Anthology.  NY:
Signet.
 
Katie G. Cannon. 1985. "The Emergence of a Black
Feminist Consciousness." Pp. 30-40 in Feminist
Interpretions of the Bible, ed. by Letty Russell.
Philadelphia: Westminster.
 
_____. 1988. Black Womanist Ethics.  Atlanta: Scholars
Press.
 
_____. 1995. Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the
Black Community.  NY: Continuum.
 
Deborah Chay.  1993.  "Rereading Barbara Smith: Black
Feminist Criticism and the Category of Experience."
New Literary History.  24: 635-652.
 
Esther Chow.  1987.  "The Development of Feminist
Consciousness Among Asian American Women."
Gender and Society.  13: 284-99.
 
Barbara Christian.  1980.  Black Women Novelists: the
Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976.  Westport, CT:
Greenwood.
 
_____. 1985.  Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on
Black Women Writers.  NY: Pergamon Press.
 
_____. 1989. "But Who Do You Really Belong to -- Black
Studies or Women's Studies?"Women's Studies.  17:
17-23.
 
Patricia Hill Collins. 1986. "Learning from the Outsider
Within: the Sociological Significance of Black Feminist
Thought.  Social Problems.  33: 14-32.
 
_____. 1989.  "The Social Construction of Black Feminist
Thought." Signs.  14: 745-73.
 
_____. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge,
Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment.
Boston: Unwin Hyman.
 
Combahee River Collective Staff. 1986. The Combahee
River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in
the Seventies & Eighties. Brooklyn: Kitchen Table/
Women of Color Press.
 
Carol Boyce Davies.  1991.  "Writing off Marginality,
Minoring, and Effacement."Women's Studies
International Forum.  14: 2149-263.
 
Angela Y. Davis. 1971.  If They Come in the Morning:
Voices of Resistance.  NY: Third World Press.
 
_____.  1974.  Angela Davis -- An Autobiography.  NY:
Random House.
 
_____.  1981.  Women, Race, and Class.  NY:  Random
House.
 
_____.  1989.  Women, Culture, and Politics.  NY: Random
House.
 
Bette J. Dickerson. 1994.  "Ethnic Identity and Feminism:
Views from Leaders of African-American Women's
Associations." Pp. 97-114 in Gay Yound and Bette J
Dickerson's (ed.) Color, Class, and Country:
Experiences in Gender.  London: Zed Books.
 
_____(ed.). 1995.  African-American Single Mothers:
Understanding their Lives and their Families.  Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
 
Bonnie Thornton Dill.  1979. "The Dialectics of Black
Womanhood."Signs.  4: 543-555.
 
_____.  1983.  "Race, Class, and Gender: Prospects for an
All-Inclusive Sisterhood."Feminist Studies  9:131-150.
 
_____.  1994.  Across the Boundaries of Race and Class:
An Exploration of Work and Family among Black
Female Domestic Servants.  NY: Garland.
 
Ann DuCille.  1993.  The Coupling Convention: Sex, Text,
and Tradition in Black Women's Fiction.  NY: Oxford U
Press.
 
_____. 1994.  "The Occult of True Black Womanhood:
Critical Demeanor and Black Feminist Studies."Signs.
19: 591-629.
 
_____. 1996. Skin Trade.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard U
Press.
 
Karen Dugger.  1995.  "Changing the Subject: Race and
Gender in Feminist Discourse." Pp. 138-153 in
Benjamin P. Bowser's Racism and Anti-Racism in
World Perspective.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 
M Forman.  1994.  "Movin Closer to an Independent-Funk
Black Feminist Theory, Standpoint, and Women in
Rap." Women's Studies: an Interdisciplinary Journal.
23: 35-55.
 
Alma Garcia.  1989.  "The Development of Chicana
Feminist Discourse, 1970-1980." Gender and Society
3: 217-38.
 
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (ed.) 1990.  Reading Black, Reading
Feminist: A Critical Anthology.  NY: Meridian Books.
 
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah.  1993.  Zora
Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present.
NY: Armistead.
 
_____.  1993.  Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and
Present.  NY: Armistead.
 
_____.  1993.  Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and
Present.  NY: Armistead.
 
_____. 1993.  Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and
Present.  NY: Armistead.
 
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes.  1980.  "Holding Back the Ocean
with a Broom: Black Women and Community Work."
Pp. 217-32 in The Black Woman, edited by La Frances
Rodgers-Rose.  Beverly Hills: Sage.
 
_____. 1982. "Successful Rebellious Professionals: The
Black Woman's Professional Identity and Community
Commitment."Psychology of Women's Quarterly.  6:
289-311.
 
Marita Golden.  1983.  Migrations of the Heart.  Garden
City, NY: Anchor Press.
 
_____. 1986.  A Woman's Place.  New York: Doubleday.
 
_____. 1992.  And Do Remember Me.  New York:
Doubleday.
 
_____. (ed.) 1993. Wild Women Don­t Wear No Blues:
Black Women Writers on Love, Men, and Sex.  NY:
Doubleday.
 
Marita Golden and Susan Richards Shreve (eds.).  1995.
Skin Deep: Black Women and White Women Write
About Race.  New York: Nan Talese.
 
Jewelle Gomez.  1991.  The Gilda Stories. Ithaca,  NY:
Firebrand Books.
 
_____.  1993.  Forty-Three Septembers.  Ithaca, NY:
Firebrand Books.
 
_____.  1995.  Oral Tradition.  Ithaca, NY: Firebrand
Books.
 
Vivian Verdell Gordon.  1987.  Black Women, Feminism,
and Black Liberation: Which Way?. Chicago: Third
World Press.
 
Hattie Gossett.  1988.  Presenting -- Sister Has no Blues.
Ithca, NY: Firebrand.
 
Vivian Verdell Gordon.  1987.  Black Women, Feminism,
and Black Liberation: Which Way?   Chicago, IL:  Third
World Press.
 
Hilary Graham.  1993.  "Social Divisions in Caring."
Women's Studies International Forum.  16: 461-470.
 
Jean Thomas Griffin.  1990.  "Black Women's Experiences
as Authority Figures in Groups." Women's Studies
Quarterly.  14: 7-12.
 
Beverly Guy-Sheftall.  1990.  Daughters of Sorrow:
Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920.  Brooklyn,
NY: Carlson Publishers.
 
_____. 1993.  "A Black Feminist Perspective on
Transforming the Academy: the Case of Spelman
College." Pp. 77-89 in Stanlie M James and Abena
Busia's (eds.) Theorizing Black Feminisms.  NY:
Routledge.
 
_____. 1995.Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-
American Feminist Thought..
 
Nora Hall.  1990.  "African American Women Leaders and
the Politics of Alliance Work."Pp. 74-94 in Lisa
Albrecht and Rose Brewer's Bridges to Power:
Women's Multicultural  Alliances.
 
Emily Hoffnar and Michael Greene.  1995.  "Residential
Location and the Earnings of African American
Women." The Review of Black Political Economy  23:
103-11.
 
Margaret Homan.  1994.  "ˇWomen of Color­ Writers and
Feminist Theory."New Literary History.  25: 73-94.
 
bell hooks.  1981.  Ain't I a Woman?: Black Women &
Feminism.  Boston: South End Press.
 
_____. 1984. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center.
Boston: South End Press.
 
_____. 1989. Talking Back, Thinking Feminist, Thinking
Black.  Boston: South End Press.
 
_____. 1990.  Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural
Politics.  Boston: South End Press.
 
_____. 1992.  Black Looks: Race and Representation.
Boston: South End Press.
 
_____. 1993.  A Woman's Mourning Song.  New York:
Harlem River Press.
 
_____. 1993.  Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-
Recovery.
 
_____. 1994.  Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations.
New York: Routledge.
 
_____. 1994.  Teaching to Transgress: Education as the
Practice of Freedom.  New York: Routledge.
 
_____. 1995.  Killing Rage: Ending Racism.  NY: H. Holt
and Co.
 
_____. 1995.  Art on my mind: Visual Politics.  New York:
New Press.
 
_____. 1996.  Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood.  New
York: Henry Holt.
 
Clenora Hudson-Weems, Daphne Ntiri, and Zulu Sofola.
1993.  Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves. NY:
Bedford.
 
Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith (ed.)
1982. All the Women are White. All the Blacks Are
Men, But Some of Us Are Brave.  Old Westbury, NY:
Feminist Press.
 
Gloria T. Hull.  1987.  Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three
Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
 
_____. 1989.  Healing Hearts: Poems, 1973-1988.  Latham,
NY: Kitchen Table Press.
 
Zora Neale Hurston.  1934.  Jonah's Gourd Vine.
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.
 
_____. 1937.  Their Eyes Were Watching God.  New York:
Negro Universities Press.
 
_____. 1939.  Moses: Man of the Mountain.  Chatham:
Chatham Bookseller.
 
_____. 1942.  Dust Tracks on a Road.  New York: Arno
Press.
 
_____. 1948.  Seraph on the Suwanee.  New York:
Scribners.
 
_____. 1979.  I Love Myself When I Am Laughing. . . and
Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive.
Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press.
 
Aida Hurtado.  1989.  "Relating to Privilege: Seduction and
Rejection in the Subordination of White Women and
Women of Color." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture
and Society.  14: 833-855.
 
Joy James and Ruth Farmer (eds.). 1993.Spirit , Space, and
Survival: African American Women in (White) Academe.
New York: Routledge.
 
Stanlie James (ed.) 1993.  Theorizing Black Feminism: the
Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women. NY: Routledge.
 
Delia Jarrett-Macauley.  1996.  Reconstructing Womanhood,
Reconstructing Feminism: Writings on Black Women.
NY: Routledge.
 
Gloria Joseph and Jill Lewis.  1986.  Common Differences:
Conflicts in Black and White Feminist Perspectives.
Boston: South End Press.
 
Amy Kesselman, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy ?.  1995.
Women: Images and Realities -- A Multicultural
Anthology.  Mountain View, CA:  Mayfield Publishing
Co.
 
Deborah King.  1988.  "Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple
Consciousness: The Context of Black Feminist
Ideology." Signs.  14: 42-72.
 
Audre Lorde. 1973.  From a Land Where Other People Live.
Detroit: Broadside Press.
 
_____.  1976.  Coal.  New York: Norton.
 
_____. 1978.  The Black Unicorn: Poems.  New York:
Norton.
 
_____. 1982.  Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.
Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.
 
_____. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.
Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press.
 
_____. 1986.  Our Dead Behind Us: Poems.  New York:
Norton.
 
_____. 1987.  The Cancer Journals.  San Francisco: Aunt
Lute.
 
_____. 1988.  A Burst of Light: Essays.  NY: Firebrand
Books.
 
Juanita Martin and Gordon C. Nagayam Hall.  1992.
"Thinking Black, Thinking Internal, Thinking Feminist."
Journal of Counseling Psychology.  39: 509-514.
 
Mary Jo Manes.  1995.  "Spirit, Space, and Survival:
African-American Women in (White) Academe."Signs.
21: 187-90.
 
Deborah McDowell. 1985. "New Directions in Black
Feminist Criticism."Pp. 186-199 in The New Feminist
Criticism, edited by Elaine Showalter.  NY: Pantheon.
 
_____. 1995.  "The Changing Same": Black Women's
Literature, Criticism, and Theory.  Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press.
 
Lily McNair.  1992.  "African-American Women in Therapy:
An Afrocentric and Feminist Synthesis." Women and
Therapy.  12: 5-19.
 
Michael Messner.  1992.  "White Men Misbehaving:
Feminism, Afrocentrism, and the Promise of a Critical
Standpoint." Journal of Sport and Social Issues.  16:
136-144.
 
Suzanne M. Miller and Barbara McCaskill.  1993.
Multicultural Literature and Literacies: Making Space for
Difference.  Albany, NY: SUNY.
 
Maria Mootry.  1994.  "Africana Womanism: Reclaiming
Ourselves." Western Journal of Black Studies.  18: 244-
245.
 
Toni Morrison. 1970.  The Bluest Eye.  NY: Pocket Books.
 
_____. 1974.  Sula.  NY: Knopf.
 
_____.  1977.  Song of Solomon.  NY:  Knopf.
 
_____. 1981.  Tar Baby.  NY: Knopf.
 
_____. 1987.  Beloved.  NY: Knopf.
 
_____. 1992.  Jazz.  NY:  Knopf.
 
Gloria Naylor.  1980.  The Women of Brewster Place.  NY:
Penguin.
 
_____.  1985.  Linden Hills.  NY: Ticknor and Fields.
 
_____. 1988.  Mama Day.  NY: Vintage.
 
_____. 1992.  Bailey's Cafe.  NY: Harcourt Brace
Jovanavich.
 
_____ (ed.). 1995.  Children of the Night:  the Best Short
Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the present..  Boston:
Little Brown.
 
Linda Perkins.  1993. "The Role of Education in the
Development of Black Feminist Thought." History of
Education.  22: 265-75.
 
Layli Phillips and Barbara McCaskill.  "Who's Schooling
Who? Black Women and the Bringing of Everyday into
Academe, or Why We Started The Womanist.." Signs
20: 1007-18.
 
Marcia Riggs. 1994. Awake, Arise, and Act: A Womanist
Call for Black Liberation.  Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim
Press.
 
Letty Russell (ed.).  1988.  Inheriting Our Mother's
Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World
Persepective.   Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
 
Cheryl Sanders.  1992.  "Afrocentrism and Womanism in
the Seminary." Christianity and Crisis.  52: 123-126.
 
_____. 1995.  Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People:
A Path to African American Transformation.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
 
_____ (ed.).  1995.  Living the Intersection: Womanism and
Afrocentrism in Theology.  Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
 
Ntozake Shange. 1975. For Colored Girls Who Have
Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.  NY:
Macmillan.
 
_____.  1978.  Nappy Edges.  NY: St. Martin's Press.
 
_____.  1982. Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo. NY: St.
Martin's Press.
 
_____.  1983.  A Daughter's Geography.  NY: St. Martin's
Press.
 
_____.  1984.  From Okra to Greens.  NY: St. Martin's
Press.
 
_____.  1985.  Betsy Brown.  NY: St. Martin's Press.
 
_____.  1987.  Riding the Edge in Texas: Word Paintings.
NY: St. Martin's Press.
 
_____.  1991.  The Love Space Demands: A Continuing
Saga.  NY: St. Martin's Press.
 
_____.  1994.  Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter.  NY:
St. Martin's Press.
 
Charlotte Watson Sherman.  1992.  Killing Color.
Corvallis, OR: Calyx Books.
 
_____.  1993.  One Dark Body.  NY: Harper Collins.
 
_____. (ed.).  1994.  Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and
Poetry.  NY: Harper Perennial.
 
_____.  1995.  Touch.  NY: Harper Collins.
 
Barbara Smith. 1977.  Toward a Black Feminist Criticism.
The Crossing Press.
 
_____. (ed.).  1983.  Home Girls: a Black Feminist
Anthology.  NY: Kitchen Table/ Women of Color Press.
 
PJ Splawn.  1993.  "Recent Developments in Black Feminist
Literary Scholarship: A Selective and Annotated
Bibiography." Modern Fiction Studies.  39: 819-833.
 
Claudia Tate (ed.). 1983.  Black Women Writers as Work.
NY: Continuum.
 
_____.  1992.  Domestic Allegories of Political Desire: the
Black Heroine's Text at the Turn of the Century.  New
York: Oxford University Press.
 
_____.  1996.  "Freud and his ˇNegro­: Psychoanalysis as
Ally and Enemy of African Americans." Journal for
Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society.  1: 53-62.
 
Emilie Maureen Townes.  1993.  Womanist Justice,
Womanist Hope.  Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.
 
_____ (ed.).  1993.  A Troubling in my Soul: Womanist
Perspectives on Evil and Suffering.  Mayknoll: Orbis
Books.
 
_____.  1995.  In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality
as Social Witness.  Nashville: Abingdon Press.
 
Judy Scales Trent.  Notes of a White Black Woman: Race,
Color, and Community.  University Park, PA: Penn
State Press.
 
Alice Walker. 1968. Once.   NY: Harcourt Brace & World.
 
_____.   1973. In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black
Women.   NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1973.  Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems.
NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1976.  Meridian.  NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1979. Good Night Willie Lee, I­ll See You in the
Morning.  Dial Press: NY.
 
_____.  1982.  The Color Purple.  NY: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1983.  In Search of Our Mothers­ Gardens:
Womanist Prose.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1984.  Horses Make a Landscape Look More
Beautiful.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1989.  The Temple of My Familiar.  San Diego:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1989.  Womanist.  Stillwater, ME:  Nancy Leavitt.
 
_____.  1991.  Her Blue Body Everything We Know:
Earthling Poems.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1992.  Possessing the Secret of Joy. NY: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich.
 
_____.  1994.  The Complete Stories.  London: The
Women's Press.
 
Rovyn Warhol and Diane Herndyl (eds.). 1991.
Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and
Criticism.  New Brunswick: Rutgers.
 
Judith Weisenfeld (ed.). 1996.  This Far by Faith: Readings
in African-American Women's Religious Biography.
NY: Routledge.
 
Francis E. White.  1990. "Africa on my Mind: Gender,
Counter Discourse, amd African-American
Nationalism."Journal of Women's History.  2: 73-97.
 
Delores Williams.  1986.  "The Color of Feminism: Or
Speaking the Blacks Woman's Tongue." Journal of
Religious Thought.  43: 42-58.
 
____.  1993.  Sisters in the Wilderness: the Challenge of
Womanist God-Talk.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
 
Patricia Williams.  1991. The Alchemy of Race and Rights.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press.
 
 _____.  1995.  The Rooster's Egg.   Cambridge, MA:
Harvard U Press.

===========================================================================
Joya Misra
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Policy
SADRI -- W34A Machmer Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-4830
(413) 545-5969
misra @ soc.umass.edu



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