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
(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