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- Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
- Book encourages reflection on recent events
- Towards a Just Society
- thanks bell hooks!
- Can't believe this ever got published!
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Where We Stand: Class Matters
bell hooks
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ASIN: 041592913X |
Book Description
Where We Stand is a powerful new book by one of America's most admired critics and writers. For years we have turned to bell hooks-feminist, social thinker, memoirist, teacher-for her deeply felt ideas on women, race, culture, sexuality, and more recently on love and children. Now Bell Hooks talks about class-the 'elephant in the room'-the subject we all know is central to our culture and its problems but that hasn't been given the attention it so desperately needs.
Why is it that the face of poverty in America is a black face, even though most of the thirty-six million poor in America are white? How do fantasies of wealth's power help keep the poor poor? What do black teens want, and how do they learn to want it? Are wealthy black Americans any more aware of class issues than wealthy whites? Why do we need so much money, after all?
Bell Hooks talks about these subjects in her own style. Drawing on both her roots in Kentucky and her adventures with Manhattan coop boards, Where We Standis a successful black woman's reflection-personal, straight forward, and rigorously honest-on how our dilemmas of class and race are intertwined, and how we can find ways to think beyond them.
Customer Reviews:
Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks.......2007-07-17
Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
All books written by bell hooks are powerful, direct, and very brave. Exactly when I was hoping bell would write a book about class, I discovered this one. Her writings about love lead to exploration of capitalism and its social structure more in depth, to strengthen points about the ways class loyalties and antagonisms prevent love ethic from becoming embraced by the society as a whole.
What I especially appreciate in Where We Stand are the two quite extraordinary qualities: a) bell showed us that we can talk and write about class without using "post-modern" or difficult to comprehend terminology, and b) she is not afraid to call to action, to change this depressing and unjust, cruel and senseless system into "a world where we can all have enough to live fully and well."
She started the book with self-critique, almost apologizing for not having enough theoretical knowledge to talk about class issues. However, bell is able to discuss very different aspects of class, such as class ideology (or the dominant social ideology being the ideology of the ruling class), class consciousness of the working class and intellectuals, intersections of class, race and gender, crossing class boundaries, and a vision of a classless society--society--without class hierarchies or antagonistic classes.
I read somewhere that some book reviews called this book a "novel". Where We Stand is not a novel, but I prefer to see this as compliment. bell masterfully intertwined her personal experiences and her family stories into the general discussion about class. Her feminist methodology brings much needed approach and analysis of one indivisible social system that is at the same time patriarchal, capitalist/imperialist, and white supremacist on a global scale.
bell hooks is always brave and principled. Her integrity is intact as she writes about the most important issues of our time. In addition, we can witness that she lives according to her values. She is compassionate and openly declares her solidarity with the working class and all of the people that Marx called proletariat. bell chose to live on a smaller income, without security that institutions provide, and to live simply.
Not only are the topics that bell writes about revolutionary, but she herself lives as an intellectual capable of leading a revolutionary movement.
I expect some critics to say that all aspects of class are not explored in this book, nor are those discussed explored in depth. Some will be tempted to say that bell is using Marx's concepts and creating relatively new terminology, as would many say that Anthony Giddens (Capitalism and Modern Social Theory; Class, Power and Conflict) is very much influenced by Marx. I understand that this book is only her first step, an introduction to a number of explorations of class issues in the contemporary American society, as well as one of her first calls for unity and strong advocacy for abolition of class and all other hierarchies.
Considering much of hooks' social theory, I see most parallels with Erich Fromm's work. Fromm wrote about "productive love" and "productive work", but he was also a very sharp critic of capitalism, exploitation, and alienation from our basic human needs, arguing for "productive humanistic communitarian socialism". Very much influenced by Marx, Fromm's theory of class also focuses on raising individual, group, and social conciseness in order to change the society into a future form that would allow us "to be" instead of "to have" and fulfill our basic human needs.
In terms of style, bell's way of writing resembles Joanna Kadi's Thinking Class who reaffirmed that working class members of our society are among best thinkers and most important agents of social change.
Book encourages reflection on recent events.......2005-11-17
I started reading this book shortly before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and news clips began pouring in from New Orleans. More clearly than ever, I understood the need for books like Where We Stand to encourage us to think about issues of class in America and then take action in our own lives.
I read bell hooks because she challenges the notions I have from my white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist upbringing. Where We Stand continues in this tradition. While reflecting upon the events of her own life and her own actions, hooks is able to examine our culture while inviting us increase awareness of how issues of class impact our own lives. For example, while critically examining the influence of materialism in our society, hooks offers her own personal experience with owning a BMW and how her attitude toward the vehicle subtly affected her relationships with other people.
Anyone willing to examine how class, race, gender, and consumerism all collide will want to read this book.
Towards a Just Society.......2005-04-05
I recommend this book. This is the first bell hooks I have read, and was deeply impressed by her clear, rooted moral position on the state of American and global society. Her writing in this piece shifts from a narrative of her own history growing up in the South, to a present academic, political critique of today.
I found her writing fluid and her point of view significant. As a black woman in America and someone who has experienced lower and upper class existence and the according journey between them, her perspective is complex, making her voice deep and necessary.
In no way can I specify difference with this book. She calls for a morally just society, which denounces the consumerism that perpetuates exploitation, racism, sexism while it is advertised and fantasized about as a life pursuit. Seeing the current issue of Newsweek's cover story, titled "How to Win," regarding a CEO's expertise in making money and succeeding the "American way," immediately brought Where We Stand into consideration.
This book is a call to action, and an illumination of the depressing and unjust, cruel and foolish system which ignores and is afraid of reforming itself enough to allow for "a world where we can all have enough to live fully and well."
I particularly appreciated her chapters on living simply, and think it is an appropriate and bold call to make in a place where stuff and acquisition are social symbols of significance.
To conclude, I found this description of class from page 103, by Rita Mae Brown, to be important: "Class is much more than Marx's definition of relationship to the means of production. Class involves behavior, your basic assumptions, how you are taught to behave, what you expect from yourself and from others, your concept of a future, how you understand problems and solve them, how you think, feel, act."
thanks bell hooks!.......2004-03-23
Thanks bell hooks! I have never read a book that explained so clearly the feelings I've had growing up in a working class family and the struggles I've endured (even as a white girl). I sensed bell hooks compassion and spirituality throughout this book. I only wish that our political leaders and our religious leaders would take time to read it.
Can't believe this ever got published!.......2003-10-31
I read this book for my sociology class. While I agree completely that class matters I think Bell Hooks does an extremely poor job of explaining why. Throughout the novel I felt like I was reading a paper written by a ten year old. Things just don't make sense. Also, the way it's written is very subjective, taking away any credibility it might have had. She does make some good points but nothing that other books about the same subject don't make. It's not worth trudging through the repetative nonsense of the rest of the book. Don't waste your money, there are many GOOD books out there (try "Ain't no Makin it" By Jay MacLeod for a good book on same topic).
Customer Reviews:
Visionary ideas but a mediocre read.......2007-01-15
Teaching in high-poverty inner city schools is no easy task. In the classroom, one often tries to fight students' incredibly low achievement with solid remediation. However, it becomes painfully clear that school lacks relevance to students, who are faced at a tender age with poverty in their families and violence in their communities. One may wonder how to teach students the academic skills they need and invest them in schoolwork at the same time. Alfred Tatum, in this text, shows us that these two challenges can actually be tackled in one stroke.
Tatum's central idea is that a careful choice of texts in the literacy classroom can make this possible. For his black male students, texts that address "turmoil" - the word Tatum uses for violence, poverty, and a sense of powerlessness and invisibility in poor black communities - achieve this end. Tatum makes a convincing case for this by giving personal examples of how such empowering texts of the black male experience can change the lives of young black men. He recalls transformative experiences in reading from his own childhood and from his work with others that convincingly illustrate how certain texts can turn reading into a reflection on masculinity, coming of age, and being poor and black in a racist America. This gives reading a sense of relevance and authenticity impossible with most traditional texts in American classrooms. Tatum combines this with copious reading lists (though I wish he would have compiled them into one long list for easy reference) that provide ample fodder for an English teacher planning a curriculum.
The greatest strength of this book is that it lets the reader peer into Tatum's own eighth grade English classroom, where he does the work of "closing the achievement gap" for his black male students. The seventh chapter brims with Tatum's own instructional methodology. His concrete methods for literacy skill development, infused oh-so-subtly with culturally sensitive cues that elevate them above mere decontextualized drill, were amazing. To me, this chapter felt like sitting down with a cup of coffee and talking shop with a first-rate teacher. As a high school math teacher, I became envious of the English teacher's situation, where skill remediation can be integrated so seamlessly with topics relevant to students' lives.
Unfortunately, for the strength of its ideas, Tatum's text has many of the typical flaws of a text in academic education (or, more broadly, a text in the social sciences). It is cluttered with jargon, stilted classifications of simple ideas, and vacuous figures and diagrams. What takes Tatum pages to say would take only a few sentences in the hands of a better writer. Entire chapters seem to address esoteric theoretical aspects that never seem to get through to the reader. Tatum, the English teacher, is meticulous with his proofreading and grammar. Try to find a typo, dangling participle, or example of faulty parallelism: I have yet to find one. But his prose is surprisingly wooden, often tiring the reader with its deadpan repetitiveness. In a more egregious example, Tatum repeats an unepigrammatic sentence four times, interspersed with vague references to government research:
"Achievement gap data indicate that a large percentage of black males are failing to meet NAEP criteria for reading at the proficient and advanced levels. This is why I believe we need to strengthen text discussions with our black adolescent male students. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice tell us that a high percentage of black males are arrested or incarcerated. This is why I believe we need to strengthen text discussions with our black adolescent male students. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor indicate a high percentage of black males are unemployed. This is why I believe we need to strengthen text discussions with our black adolescent male students. Data from the U.S. Department of Education indicate that college enrollment is declining for black males. This is why I believe we need to strengthen text discussions with our black adolescent male students." (112)
It is too bad that Tatum lacks the skill as a writer to give his message a persuasive punch. Tatum's strategy to build literacy, self-awareness, and academic motivation through empowering texts is remarkable for its sensibility and promise. It deserves a wide audience and enthusiastic application in American inner-city classrooms.
Book Description
This authoritative introduction to African American English (AAE) is the first textbook to look at the grammar as a whole. Clearly organized, it describes patterns in the sentence structure, sound system, word formation and word use. It examines education, speech events in the secular and religious world, and the use of AAE in literature and the media to create black images. It includes exercises to accompany each chapter and is essential reading for students in linguistics, education, anthropology, African American studies and literature.
Customer Reviews:
One of the first of its kind.......2007-05-13
African American English has been studied for awhile, but the examples that Green uses are interesting of a language I'm already aware of but never saw it's use in detail described. Very interesting!
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Literacy in African American Communities
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Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students from Preschool-5th Grade
ASIN: 0805834028 |
Book Description
This volume explores the unique sociocultural contexts of literacy development, values, and practices in African American communities. African Americans--young and old--are frequently the focus of public discourse about literacy. In a society that values a rather sophisticated level of literacy, they are among those who are most disadvantaged by low literacy achievement. Literacy in African American Communities contributes a fresh perspective by revealing how social history and cultural values converge to influence African Americans' literacy values and practices, acknowledging that literacy issues pertaining to this group are as unique and complex as this group's collective history.
Existing literature on literacy in African American communities is typically segmented by age or academic discipline. This fragmentation obscures the cyclical, life-span effects of this population's legacy of low literacy. In contrast, this book brings together in a single-source volume personal, historical, developmental, and cross-disciplinary vantage points to look at both developmental and adult literacy from the perspectives of education, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and communication sciences and disorders. As a whole, it provides important evidence that the negative cycle of low literacy can be broken by drawing on the literacy experiences found within African American communities.
Amazon.com
In 1996, an America Online poll about Ebonics sparked more responses than did its survey on O.J. Simpson. And that's just a taste of the controversy and debate that Black English has provoked over the years. Called "Spoken Soul" by Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land, the dialect of African Americans has been lauded, derided, questioned, and discussed for decades, but never so comprehensively and fairly as in this historic, sociologic, and linguistic overview and analysis by John Russell Rickford (the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University) and Russell John Rickford (a journalist, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer).
They discuss the attitudinal impact of socioeconomic factors, as well as the effect of generation and gender. They look at the place of black vernacular in literature and family, identity and culture, education and politics. And they track previous debates, from Paul Laurence Dunbar's considerations in the late 1800s to the black intelligentsia of the Harlem Renaissance to the issues raised by the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the recent Ebonics discourse.
Part 2, entitled "This Passion, This Skill, This Incredible Music," takes a close look at the richness of Spoken Soul, as recorded in literature (both black and white), from John Leacock's 1776 play The Fall of British Tyranny to DMX's rap lyrics of today. They look at the language of preachers and comedians, actors and singers, and scores of writers, and then they delve deeper, into the components of the living language, examining the vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and history of the black vernacular. And finally, the Rickfords discuss the role of Spoken Soul in terms of African American identity. The result? A thoughtful, erudite, and provocative narrative that lifts the discussion of Black English out of the knee-jerk negativity that arose from the Ebonics controversy of 1996 and into the loftier and more appropriate realms of linguistics, literature, and culture. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
In Praise of spoken soul
the story of black english
"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture."-Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university
"A lively, well-documented history of Black English . . . that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language."-Kirkus Reviews
"Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity."-Chicago Defender
Claude Brown called Black English "Spoken Soul." Toni Morrison said, "It's a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher's: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."
Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English-from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.
Download Description
A leading expert explores the roots of African-American Vernacular English, which is the first language of millions of African-American children and the signature sound of informal conversation among the generations. Claude Brown, author of the classic Manchild in the Promised Land, called black English "spoken soul." In this book, John Rickford traces its history, use, influence and America's love/hate attitude toward it.
Customer Reviews:
A book everyone should read.......2000-08-23
This book was meant for every teacher, journalist, voter, politician, mother, writer, speech-giver, and person interested in language usage. It is a very smooth read with the rigor and content of a scholarly work and the clarity and craftsmanship of a New York Times bestseller. It would be a perfect book for a Freshman seminar or to read on a warm summer afternoon.
This book has five sections. The first section is the introduction.
The second section is for everyone interested in Speech Communication, Rhetoric, Writing, Rhetorical Style, Code-switching and Genre analysis--folklore, prayers, writers, music, poems, etc. In addition to discussing discourse level topics, it also introduces phonological and syntactic markers of the different speech varieties. It also describes the difference between hip-hop slang and the systematic language variation in sound, grammar, and rhetorical style that characterize AAVE.
The third section, devoted to illustrating the phonological, syntactic, and evolutionary (linguistic/etymological) systems of AAVE, is written for the lay reader, but it is useful for advanced students of linguistics as well who would like to gain an overview of how the language works. It is very thorough in illustrating the systematic rule system of AAVE, including socio-linguistically predictable frequencies of feature occurrence, and it explains linguistic notions in lay concepts for those without a background in linguistics. It is extraordinarily clear and easy to understand, but theoretically thorough and deep. It is careful to explain the linguistic environments of AAVE rules, and illustrates every point with multiple examples. Nearly every page of the book contains data illustrating the richness of the language being described and the linguistic notions being discussed. The data is presented in a format digestible to the lay reader, but Rickford is careful to preserve all of the information that a linguist may wish to pull out of the data. The last chapter in this section is devoted to historical linguistics. It describes century by century what data is available and how to use it to triangulate a theory of language origin. It explains the anglocentric, creolist, and afrocentric positions on the origins of AAVE. The book then goes point by point through all of the syntactic and phonological characteristics described in the previous two chapters and describes the theoretical positions of all three camps on these points. It is one of the best descriptions, point by point, that I have ever read on the origins of AAVE.
The fourth section deals with the Oakland Ebonics controversy. It explains the issues involved from all perspectives, the history of the issues, the players, and the media issues. Most usefully, it includes information on educational research showing the outcomes of various educational programs for language minorities here and abroad which never got aired during the controversy. It also describes a number of programs which showed substantial improvement in outcomes, but which were discontinued for political reasons. It is a case study worthy of any political science, media, public relations, or educational administration course.
The last section deals with language and identity. It is short, but poignant with many illustrative examples. It touches on important socio-linguistic concepts, but it could be expanded greatly.
The rest of this is intended for instructors considering this for a Freshman survey course. The points are excessively nit-picky and not at all relevant to anyone other than an instructor.
What I wanted more of:
1) more unscripted examples of code-switching and analysis of reasons for it 2)discussion of why the Nova Scotia, Liberian, and Sierra Leone data is so valuable (i.e. comparative method for the lay person) 3) more specific explanation of the "universals" of pidginization and creolization 4)discussion of decreolization. The terms basilect, mesolect, and acrolect with weak explanation of their significance. This is quite uncharacteristic of the book as a whole, which carefully explains or avoids linguistic jargon. 5) more extensive discussion of educational research on literacy acquisition 6) more in-depth examples of comprehension issues. There is a lot of discussion about the work Labov is doing on this, but there is a paucity of examples. (Again, uncharacteristic of the book as a whole.) 7) presentation of more scholarly theory and research on psychology of education and its effects on learning 8) more extensive explanation of network theory, which is mentioned several times but only briefly explained, 9) more information about the differences between regional varieties of Black English in previous centuries, 10) more information about differences between regional varieties of AAVE now. The book shows that variation is extensive along social class and social network lines, however, it gives the impression that there is now little to no regional variation in it. The book could be more overt in stating to what extent they believe this is true.
Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English.......2000-03-12
I salute the Rickfords for composing a masterpiece that presents such a wide range of factual knowledge (e.g., definitions, examples, and historical facts). This book is not only a great resource for other researchers but it is also a great wealth of information for novices. Spoken Soul offers a wide range of data on the linguistic variety which historically has been labeled as followed: Negro Nonstandard English (NNE), Black English (BE), Ebonics, Black English Vernacular (BEV), African American English (AAE), African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and Ebonics. After considering all the misinformed people who believe that it is their God given right to voice their opinions on the subject of Spoken Soul as well as all the informed soldiers who have been working dutifully to set the record straight, I firmly believe that this book is right on time.
Spoken Soul is an enlightening and enriching experience........2000-03-12
I found the book to be very enlightening and was quite impressed by the scholarly approach of the authors, particularly their discussion of the origin, history and development of Black English in this country and in the Caribbean area. For example, their explanation of the substitution of "d" for "th" in spoken soul, their term for Black English, because there is no "th" sound in the West African languages used by the black slaves in early America provided a clear basis for this usage that made good sense to me. That explanation dispelled any pejorative notions that this pronunciation was due to some kind of laziness of tongue or simple-mindedness on the part of the speakers. The book is very well organized, well written, and introduces the reader to the many uses to which Black English or spoken soul has been put in music, humor, poetry, novels and the theater. Although it is a scholarly work, it flows quite smoothly and is easy to read. The discussion of Ebonics and the actions of the Oakland School Board is must reading for anyone who followed that controversy. It puts that whole affair and the media1s role in it in its proper context. I bought a copy for one of my colleagues and another is reading my copy. After finishing the book, I had a greater appreciation of my own home language. The book is must reading for anyone interested in having a better understanding of the multi-layered society in which we live, the beauty and richness of the languages we speak and the contributions speaker of soul have made to the beautiful mosaic that is the United States.
Spoken Soul is an enlightening and enriching experience........2000-03-12
I found the book to be very enlightening and was quite impressed by the scholarly approach of the authors, particularly their discussion of the origin, history and development of Black English in this country and in the Caribbean area. For example, their explanation of the substitution of ³d² for ³th² in spoken soul, their term for Black English, because there is no ³th² sound in the West African languages used by the black slaves in early America provided a clear basis for this usage that made good sense to me. That explanation dispelled any pejorative notions that this pronunciation was due to some kind of laziness of tongue or simple-mindedness on the part of the speaker. The book is very well organized, well written, and introduces the reader to the many uses to which Black English or spoken soul has been put in music, humor, poetry, novels and the theater. Although it is a scholarly work, it flows quite smoothly and is easy to read. The discussion of Ebonics and the actions of the Oakland School Board is must reading for anyone who followed that controversy. It puts that whole affair and the media¹s role in it in its proper context. I bought a copy for one of my colleagues and another is reading my copy. After finishing the book, I had a greater appreciation of my own home language. The book is must reading for anyone interested in having a better understanding of the multi-layered society in which we live, the beauty and richness of the languages we speak and the contributions speaker of soul have made to the beautiful mosaic that is the United States.
Book Description
Within visual literacy there are different ways to read, for example, music videos on MTV, video games, websites and billboards. Using these secondary oral environments, Elaine Richardson explores rap and Hip Hop discourse within a trajectory of Black discourses. She relates these discourses to the lived experiences of Black people, which have emanated from their quest for self-realization and their engagement in a discursive dialectic between various vernacular and dominant meaning-making systems.
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Talkin Black Talk: Language, Education, and Social Change: Language, Education, and Social Change (Multicultural Education (Paper))
Manufacturer: Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University
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Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture
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Writing Begins At Home Preparing Childre
ASIN: 0807747467 |
Book Description
This book captures an important moment in the history of language and literacy education and the continuing struggle for equal language rights. Published 50 years after the Brown decision, this volume revisits the difficult and enduring problem of public schools' failure to educate Black children, and revises our approaches to language and literacy learning in today's culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Bringing together some of the leading scholars in the study of Black language, culture, and education, this book presents creative, classroom-based, hands-on pedagogical approaches (from Hip Hop Culture to the art of teaching narrative reading comprehension) within the context of the broader, global concerns that impact schooling (from linguistic emancipation to the case of Mother Tongue Education in South Africa).
Book Description
Roc the Mic Right is the first in-depth, book-length analysis of the most pervasive yet least examined aspect of Hip Hop Culture - its language. Hip Hop Culture has captured the minds of youth "all around the world, from Japan to Amsterdam" (like the homie Kurupt say), shaping youth identities, styles, attitudes, languages, fashions, and both physical and political stances. Written in both "Hip Hop Nation Language" and "academic discourse," Alim takes the reader on a journey through Hip Hop's inventive linguistic landscape, deconstructing its discourse and poetics, while highlighting relationships between language, identity and power (from the groundbreaking exploration of the Muslim "transglobal Hip Hop ummah" to the critical study of Black Language in White public space). What sets this book apart from many on the subject is Alim's extensive ethnographic fieldwork and his close contact with the Hip Hop community, from multiplatinum superstars to street-level, underground heads. Drawing upon an impressively broad range of theories and methodologies, from sociolinguistics and anthropology to cultural studies and poetics, Alim places the Hip Hop artists - such as Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Ras Kass, JT the Bigga Figga, Eve and Juvenile - in the center by viewing them as interpreters of their own culture. The result is a fascinating insider's view of what can arguably be referred to as the most profound cultural and musical movement to rock the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Customer Reviews:
Scholar's Ink.......2007-06-09
In a deceptively slender book, Roc the Mic addresses weighty and rarely-discussed linguistic aspects of hip hop culture. I've marked up countless pages as I read through the book, bookmarking pages here and there for future reference. It's a superb resource, particularly for those who want to understand and closely examine the language of the most vibrant cultural phenomenon of our current times. Using meticulous linguistic analyses, interviews with artists, case study, and more...Alim uses every strategy at his disposal to define, explain, and even debate thick socio-political, pedagogical, and identity dynamics framed by hip hop language. While some readers might find some views and explications verging on the controversial, in the end, Roc the Mic establishes itself as a foundational volume for serious hip hop linguistic scholarship. If that weren't enough, it also provides room for inquiry questions to develop, thus paving the way for future research. Real talk!
Book Description
This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).Despite intense scrutiny of the historical and current development of AAVE, a number of issues remain unresolved. Most prominent among these is the development of African American English during the antebellum period and the trajectory of change in twentieth-century AAVE. This book addresses both of these issues by examining an unparalleled sociolinguistic situation involving a long-standing, isolated, biracial community situated in a distinctive dialect region of coastal North Carolina. This unique environment provides a venue for dealing with questions of localized dialect accommodation and ethnolinguistic distinctiveness in earlier African American English.The conclusions drawn challenge the Creolist, Anglicist, and neo-Anglicist positions with respect to the history of AAVE and offer insights into the development of African American speech in the twentieth century.
Average customer rating:
- If you think you may be a writer, read this book.
- Joyous
- Vintage bell hooks
- Very good book more critally conscious writers.
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remembered rapture: the writer at work
bell hooks
Manufacturer: Owl Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0805059105 |
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African American women writers, being both black and female, face challenges that the rest of us might never have even considered. While this essay collection is ultimately a celebration of the writing life and of the writers author bell hooks (who signs her name with lower-case letters) cites as inspirational, it also illuminates the issues she and other black women writers have to contend with in their careers. Hooks has been criticized for, among other things, being incredibly prolific (she has been called "the Joyce Carol Oates of black feminist writing") and for her scope: "Black writers," says hooks, "always have difficulty gaining recognition for a body of work if anything we do is eclectic." Though hooks does take her critics to task, she is more concerned with confronting a system that seems determined to work against black women--and other minority--writers. She is critical of publishers for throwing the largest advances and promotional efforts at white male authors. She complains that "when writers from marginalized groups do work that is truly marvelous," the literary establishment is likely to see that work as a "rare exception." And she even rails against black women writers themselves, saying that "Nothing diminishes our efforts to gain a greater hearing for nonfiction by black women more than the severe dismissals of this work by black women."
Autobiography is one form of writing that hooks feels is particularly difficult for black women writers, most of whom come from families that never previously "had to think about whether a relative would write something about their lives." In fact, she says, autobiographical writing is troublesome for writers who do not "come from class backgrounds where there are rituals of public confession like psychoanalysis." As a child, says hooks, "talking openly outside the family about any aspect of family life was considered a form of treason." Now, though her family is proud of her and pleased that she has not forsaken her origins, she says, "writing about my life has created an emotional distance between me and my parents. An intimacy we once shared is gone." --Jane Steinberg
Book Description
With grace and insight, celebrated writer bell hooks untangles the complex personae of women writers. Born and raised in the rural South, hooks learned early the power of the written word and the importance of speaking her mind. Her passion for words is the heartbeat of this collection of essays. Remembered Rapture celebrates literacy, the joys of reading and writing, and the lasting power of the book. Once again, these essays reveal bell hooks's wide-ranging intellectual scope; she is a universal writer addressing readers and writers everywhere.
Customer Reviews:
If you think you may be a writer, read this book........2005-06-29
Hooks' life absolutely depends on writing. In fact, she talks about writing to *avoid death* in many places throughout this collection of essays: there's the confessional writing that she does to avoid suicide early on in her writing life; there's also other more figurative deaths including despair and domination. These two can be overcome in writing by writing works of reconciliation and community, which hooks says she is always trying to do. This is a way of writing that will be most interesting to those among us who are interested in writing as resistance, or with social transformation.
Death seems to stalk black women who write. Hooks points to Audrey Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, Lorraine Hansberry, and others who died quite young. This is another reason why the writer must use her time deligently: she does not know when her time will be over. It is also a reason to write autobiographical work, so we'll know something about you, the writer, when you're dead. We still know very little about the life of Zora Neal Hurston, hooks says.
You can already see there are many writers about whom hooks thinks. The author's habitus includes: Matthew Fox on spirtuality, Dorothy Allison on growing up poor or working class, Cornel West on race, Tillie Olsen on class, Jeanette Winterson, Ann Petry, Emily Dickenson and more.
From childhood, hooks was eager to write: first poetry and diaries, then fiction, and later the critical non-fiction for which she is so well-known. (Did you know that bell hooks wrote her first book, Ain't I a Woman, when she was nineteen?) She observes that once you are pegged into one genre of writing, say that of the critical essay, it is unlikely that you will be able to cross over into other genres successfully. This is not because you will not be good at different kinds of writing. This is because publishers, critics, and the academy will see you as a writer of critical essays, end of story. Hooks says she revolts against these divides.
This is an example of the kinds of insight hooks offers about the institutional apparatus which surrounds your solitary efforts, even now. I'm not convinced that the world is always as she sees it. I'm also not willing to let what could be the wisdom of experience in the academy and in publishing pass me by without giving it some thought, like: what kind of writing would I like to be associated with? When people see your name in print, do you want people to say, "That's that funny/insightful/bookish/concise/unfathomable poet/scientist/essayist/scholar"?
Here is some of what I learned from hooks in Remembering Rapture, starkly rendered here for the sake of space though they are subtlely offered in the text:
Tips for (women) becoming a (great) writer, gleaned from bell hooks:
>>Write as if you are dying. What better way to make you use your time wisely? Who knows when you will be able to write no more, and you want to leave your trace, don't you?
>>Don't be a bore: essay writing can and should be creative, though it usually is not.
>>Write yourself into the text. From feminism we've learned that writing that does not use the pronoun "I" is not necessarily more objective. Scholarly writing can include "I".
>>It's YOUR story! When writing autobiographical work, or any work that relies on your version of events, remember that the way you remember events will differ from the way other people do (and that's okay!)
>>Don't ruin your mother's life! When writing autobiographical work, or other stories with real people in them, there are ethical questions you must consider in writing about the lives of other people
>> If you are a woman, expect to confront sexism. (Sorry to state the obvious.) Eg. asking women to think about how their writing will affect their children is sexist
>>Teach at a CEGEP (a college, in most juristictions outside Quebec): choose intellectual life over academic careerism (hooks teaches at the oh-so-prestigious City College of New York. Ever hear of it? Me either. But, she chose to work there because she can be a thinker there and at the same time teach young black people, which is important in her own politics.)
>>Get some smart friends. As a writer, you must have much solitary time to contemplate and to work. But you also need to have good conversations to stimulate your creativity.
>>Celebrate words. Choosing the right words is so powerful, as we who work in the mighty field of communication know. For example, hooks does not call herself a "black feminist" because these words participate in legitimizing a separate-but-equal feminism.
>>Show how brilliant you are by articulating your points so that a wide audience can understand them. Don't use language to obscure meaning. The point is not to render ideas less complex - the point is to make the complex clear.
>>Value your audience and know who they are! Who do you speak to? Let them stimulate your writing by communicating with you about things you've said.
>>IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, WRITE! NO WOMAN CAN WRITE TOO MUCH BECAUSE WOMEN HAVE NOT WRITTEN ENOUGH.
I'm still pondering some of the things hooks comes out with in this book, but I defintely like the "throw down" style of it - one that is also in her other essays. ( That's one of the uses that the writer can make of the short essay, says hooks!)
On the point of writing yourself into your work: I'd be willing to bet pecunia to pens and paper that hooks will make you think that you should write a bit of your own autobiography in whatever else you write. I have not been comfortable with this technique, instead adopting a dispassionate authorial voice over material that I have often felt passionate about. Hooks really makes me want to think and write about, as she works to do within her own conditions of living, how being a white woman from a working class background is interwoven with whatever else I choose to study. She asks those who are aspiring to write within academic venues if we're also apiring to betray our roots. Are you writing work that edifies who you are, or who you would like to become? But more about what this has to do with ME when I reflect on my own writing. . .see, this book allows you to reflect.
Finally, if you are a writer, writing should be a pleasure. The craft of writing is hard work, but if you feel that rapture when the work is done and the words are beaming out from the page, perhaps you are a writer after all.
Joyous.......2003-01-20
Essential for "the aspiring indigenous black female writer." Honest encouragement and insider info from a young woman writer who has blossomed into one of the most important writers and intellectuals of our times. Plus, it's good fun for those with a passion for writing or reading.
Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.
Vintage bell hooks.......1999-03-14
I saw the interview of bell hooks on C-Span. Went and purchased the book the next day. It serves as a primer for women who are writers or want to be writers. She candidly discusses the inside of the publishing industry. Also, she makes it clear that writing is something that a person should love for the craft not just for the money. Do not put this book down before you finish it. Near the end she pays a warm tribute to the black women writers who have influenced her work. As expected, it is well written and should become a part of our reference libraries.
Very good book more critally conscious writers........1998-12-23
Again, hooks demonstrates her range as writer and social critic. She writes about what it means to be a writer who is Black, feminist, and spirtually connected. This work will answer many of the questions readers of her other works may have about her inspirations as a writer, why she chose to write her memoirs, what challenges she has faced as a writer, and how we, her readers, can connect with our own lives through writing (She says:"Writing becomes a way to embrace the mysterious, to walk with spirits, and an entry to the realm of the sacred." And on her early writings: "My write was an act of resistance not simply in relation to outer structures of domination like race, sex, and class; I was writing t resist all the socialization I had received in religios, southern, working-class, patriarchal home that tried to teach me silence as the most desirable trait of womanliness"). It's not offen that we get to hear a progressive writer talk about the act of writing. This area is usually preserved for mainstream writers. So it's good to see hooks revealing parts of her self in this work. I think will see a lot more from hooks. I hope she delves more into her experiences in the academy, showing us her interacitons with her students and co-workers. While her life is important, we also need her critical eye on the people around her.
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