Centering Ourselves: African American Feminist and Womanist Studies of DiscourseMarsha Houston, Olga Idriss Davis In this book the editors suggest an approach to the study of black women as communicators that centers the knowledge and wisdom conveyed through the 19th and 20th centuries both in the public rhetoric of notable black women and in ordinary women's everyday conversations. The goal is to present what is not found in other communication books and Joomals - an angle of vision on black women's rhetoric and everyday talk that both takes account of the material circumstances and ideological contexts of black women's communication and honors black women's interpretations of discourse. Although the authors employ a variety of contemporary communication concepts and theories, all make the traditions of African American feminist and womanist thought central to their analyses. In Part I a framework for liberatory research is proposed. Each author in Part II endeavors to provide concrete, socially useful description and critique of African American women's discourse. Three of the major themes that interweave in these chapters are multiple consciousness, the value of sisterhood and community, and the culture of resistance. |
Contents
A Black Womens Angle of Vision | 1 |
Goals for Emancipatory Communication Research | 21 |
Conceiving the Language of Black Womens Everyday Talk | 53 |
Copyright | |
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African American feminist African American women African Diaspora Afrocentric Alice argued audience Audre Lorde behavior Black community Black female Black feminist thought Black women Black women's communication challenge Cleage Cleage's co-researchers Collins communication scholars context conversation cream critical Davis discourse of experience discussion dominant empowerment epistemology erotic ethic ethic of caring everyday talk exploration feminism feminist and womanist focus Foxy Brown gender girls goal Guy-Sheftall hip-hop historical hooks Houston identify identity ideology of womanhood interaction male MC Lyte mother multiple consciousness negotiate oppression participants performance phenomenology play political race racial racism Reagon & Sweet relationships resistance rhetorical Rock Routledge sass scholarship sexism sexual pleasure silence Sister Souljah sisterhood slave narratives Smitherman song space speak standpoint stories strategies struggle Sweet Honey theory tradition University Press voice White women woman womanist women of color women's lives women's studies York