Beyond the Black Lady : Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class / Lisa B. Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Lisa B., 1965- author.

Series:

New Black studies series.

New Black Studies Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Psychology.

African American women.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (231 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

University of Illinois Press 2009

Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois, [2009]

Summary:

In this book, 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.

Contents:

Intro

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class

Part 1: Performing Identity

1. Spectacle of the Respectable: Anita Hill and the Problem of Innocence

"Intensely Private Matters"

Revealing Testimony

2. Staging Black Female Desire: The Drama of Race, Class, and Sexuality

Fighting the Race, Sex, and Class War

Rethinking Tragedy: P. J. Gibson's Black Middle-Class Heroines

3. Black Ladies and Black Magic Women: Independent Film and Black Sexuality

Screening Race, Gender, and Class

Eve's Bayou

Daughters of the Dust

Part 2: Refashioning the Black Female Self

4. Narrating Sexuality in Contemporary African American Autobiography

Looking through Black Ice

Sexual Liberation and Volunteer Slavery

5. Sex, Travel, and the Single African American Girl: Andrea Lee's Sarah Phillips

Beyond the Black Lady

Epilogue

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Thompson, Lisa B. Beyond the Black Lady

ISBN:

9780252056390

0252056396