
Critical Appropriations
African American Women and the Construction of Transnational Identity
Simone C. Drake(Author)
Louisiana State University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. May 2014
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-0-8071-5387-1 (ISBN)
Description
From the novels of Toni Morrison to the music of Beyonce Knowles, the cultural prevalence of a transnational black identity, as created by African American women, is more than a product of geographic mobility. Rather, as author Simone C. Drake shows, these constructions illuminate our understanding of a chronically marginalized demographic. In Critical Appropriations, Drake contends that these fluid and hetero-geneous characterizations of black females arise from multiple creative outlets - literature, film, and music videos - and reflect African Ameri-can women's evolving concept of home, community, gender, and family.
Through a close examination of Toni Morrison's Paradise, Danzy Senna's Caucasia, Gayl Jones's Corregidora, Erna Brodber's Louisiana, and Kasi Lemmons's film Eve's Bayou, as well as Beyonce Knowles's B-Day album and music-video collaboration with Shakira, ""Beautiful Liar,"" Drake reveals how concepts of hybridity - whether positioned as creolite, Candomble, negritude, Latinidad, or Brasilidade - are appropriated in each work of art as a way of challenging the homogeneous paradigm of black cultural studies. This redefined notion of identity enables African American women to embrace a more complex, transnational blackness that is not only more liberating but also more pertinent to their experiences.
Drawing from this borderless exchange of ideas and a richer concept of self, Critical Appropriations offers a rewarding reconsideration of the creative implications for African American women, mapping new directions in black women's studies.
Through a close examination of Toni Morrison's Paradise, Danzy Senna's Caucasia, Gayl Jones's Corregidora, Erna Brodber's Louisiana, and Kasi Lemmons's film Eve's Bayou, as well as Beyonce Knowles's B-Day album and music-video collaboration with Shakira, ""Beautiful Liar,"" Drake reveals how concepts of hybridity - whether positioned as creolite, Candomble, negritude, Latinidad, or Brasilidade - are appropriated in each work of art as a way of challenging the homogeneous paradigm of black cultural studies. This redefined notion of identity enables African American women to embrace a more complex, transnational blackness that is not only more liberating but also more pertinent to their experiences.
Drawing from this borderless exchange of ideas and a richer concept of self, Critical Appropriations offers a rewarding reconsideration of the creative implications for African American women, mapping new directions in black women's studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baton Rouge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Paper over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
381 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8071-5387-1 (9780807153871)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Simone C. Drake
Critical Appropriations
African American Women and the Construction of Transnational Identity
E-Book
05/2014
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€19.49
Available for download
Person
Simone C. Drake is assistant professor of African American studies at Ohio State University.