Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class (New Black Studies Series) - Hardcover

Thompson, Lisa B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252034260 ISBN 13: 9780252034268

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2009

Synopsis

Lisa B. Thompson explores the representation of black middle class female sexuality by African American women authors in narrative literature, drama, film, and popular culture, showing how these depictions reclaim black female agency and illustrate the difficulties black women confront in asserting sexual agency in the public sphere. Thompson broadens the discourse around black female sexuality by offering an alternate reading of the overly determined racial and sexual script that casts the middle class "black lady" as the bastion of African American propriety. Drawing on the work of black feminist theorists, she examines symptomatic autobiographies, novels, plays, and key episodes in contemporary American popular culture, including works by Anita Hill, Judith Alexa Jackson, P. J. Gibson, Julie Dash, Kasi Lemmons, Jill Nelson, Lorene Cary, and Andrea Lee.

About this title

About the Author:

Lisa B. Thompson is an associate professor of English at the University at Albany, SUNY, and the author of the playSingle Black Female.

Review:

“[Thompson] finds that some Black women are pioneering new ways to be and to give voice to a more fully actualized, human, female persona. This new woman is long overdue.”--Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0252034260
• ISBN 13: 9780252034268
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200