Black Feminist Thought


Book Description

In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.




Feminisms


Book Description

"Everything you might want to know about the history and practice of feminist criticism in North America". -Feminist Bookstore News




Reel to Real


Book Description

Movies matter – that is the message of Reel to Real, bell hooks’ classic collection of essays on film. They matter on a personal level, providing us with unforgettable moments, even life-changing experiences and they can confront us, too, with the most profound social issues of race, sex and class. Here bell hooks – one of America’s most celebrated and thrilling cultural critics – talks back to films that have moved and provoked her, from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction to the work of Spike Lee. Including also her conversations with master filmmakers such as Charles Burnett and Julie Dash, Reel to Real is a must read for anyone who believes that movies are worth arguing about.




Redefining Black Film


Book Description

Can films about black characters, produced by white filmmakers, be considered "black films"? In answering this question, Mark Reid reassesses black film history, carefully distinguishing between films controlled by blacks and films that utilize black talent, but are controlled by whites. Previous black film criticism has "buried" the true black film industry, Reid says, by concentrating on films that are about, but not by, blacks. Reid's discussion of black independent films—defined as films that focus on the black community and that are written, directed, produced, and distributed by blacks—ranges from the earliest black involvement at the turn of the century up through the civil rights movement of the Sixties and the recent resurgence of feminism in black cultural production. His critical assessment of work by some black filmmakers such as Spike Lee notes how these films avoid dramatizations of sexism, homophobia, and classism within the black community. In the area of black commercial film controlled by whites, Reid considers three genres: African-American comedy, black family film, and black action film. He points out that even when these films use black writers and directors, a black perspective rarely surfaces. Reid's innovative critical approach, which transcends the "black-image" language of earlier studies—and at the same time redefines black film—makes an important contribution to film history. Certain to attract film scholars, this work will also appeal to anyone interested in African-American and Women's Studies.




Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa


Book Description

"This volume sets out to investigate critically existing lines of thought about sexuality in Africa, while also creating space for alternative approaches"--P. [4] of cover.




Movies of the 80s


Book Description

This book's 140 A-Z entries include synopses, film stills, and production photos.




Spike Lee


Book Description

Spike Lee's journey from guerrilla filmmaker to Hollywood insider is explored in light of his personal background, the cultural influence of his films, and the extensive scholarship his movies have inspired. This insightful study probes the iconic filmmaker's career as a director and shaper of American culture. It not only sheds light on the ways in which Lee's background, influences, and outlook affect his films but also discusses how he participates in, transforms, and transcends the tradition of black American filmmaking. Each chapter offers a critical assessment of at least one, and sometimes multiple, Lee films, examining their production history; their place in Lee's filmography; and their aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance. Readers will come away from this first scholarly assessment of Lee's career and work with a better understanding of his penchant for stirring up controversy about significant social, political, and artistic issues as well as his role as an American artist who provokes his audiences as much as he pacifies them.




Invisibility Blues


Book Description

Book on Black feminism and Black culture




A Rhetoric of Symbolic Identity


Book Description

This study explores African-American identity through film, drawing from Spike Lee's cinematic production of X (1992) and Bamboozled (2000). The study brings attention to how African-American identity is negotiated in communicative interactions. In doing so, the study proposes an alternative rhetorical and cultural approach to the nuances of African-American identity. Using contemporary theories from Ronald Jackson, Mark McPhail, Cornel West, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Eric Watts, the researcher explores the dynamics of human interaction: the manifestations of power, perception, essentialist thinking, and how these in turn penetrate through language in our understanding of others. This study makes critical arguments concerning the strategic positioning of language for purposes of understanding culture and difference. More importantly, it rearticulates black identity, making an argument for its complexities, which are other than historical and factual. It argues that black identity needs to be examined in terms of a more critical and culturally appropriate rhetoric.




The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair


Book Description

Instant New York Times Bestseller “Unimpeachably terrific.” —The New York Times Book Review For fans of Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, and Donna Tartt: a twisty, fast-paced, cinematic literary thriller, and an ingenious book within a book, by the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Enigma of Room 622 Marcus Goldman is riding high. The twenty-eight-year-old writer is the new darling of American letters, whose debut novel has sold two million copies. But when it comes time to produce a new book, he is sidelined by a crippling case of writer’s block. He travels to Somerset, New Hamprshire, to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of the country’s most respected writers, hoping to jar his creative juices as his publisher’s deadline looms. But Marcus’s plans are upended when Harry is sensationally implicated in a cold-case murder: Fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan went missing in 1975, and Harry admits to having had an affair with her. Following a trail of clues through the backwoods and isolated beaches of New Hampshire, Marcus must answer two questions, which are mysteriously connected: Who killed Nola Kellergan? And how do you write a book to save someone’s life? Translated from the French by Sam Taylor Named a Best Book of the Summer by CBS This Morning, Us Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Parade, Houston Chronicle, New York Post, Tampa Bay Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and The Daily Beast Now a 10-part TV series on EPIX, starring Patrick Dempsey, Ben Schnetzer, Damon Wayans Jr., and Virginia Madsen