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bell hooks
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Gloria Jean Watkins (born September 25, 1952), better
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known by her pen name bell hooks,[1][2] is an American
author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has
focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and
gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate
systems of oppression and domination. She has
published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and
mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary
films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily
through a postmodern perspective, hooks has addressed
race, class, and gender in education, art, history,
sexuality, mass media and feminism.
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bell hooks
Born
Gloria Jean Watkins
September 25, 1952 (age 58)
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, USA
Pen name
bell hooks
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Contents [hide]
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Languages
Deutsch
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 Career
Ελληνικά
2 Influences
Español
3 Teaching to Transgress
Français
4 Criticism
Bahasa Indonesia
5 Awards and nominations
‫עברית‬
6 Select bibliography
日本語
7 Film appearances
Polski
8 Further reading
Srpskohrvatski /
Српскохрватски
9 References
Occupation Author, feminist, social activist
Notable
work(s)
Influences
Ain’t I a Woman?: Black
Women and Feminism
All About Love: New Visions
We Real Cool: Black Men and
Masculinity
[show]
10 External links
Svenska
Türkçe
Biography
[edit]
Early life
[edit]
Gloria Jean Watkins was born on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She grew up in a
working class family with five sisters and one brother. Her father, Veodis Watkins, was a custodian
and her mother, Rosa Bell Watkins, was a homemaker. Throughout her childhood, she was an avid
reader.
Her early education took place in racially segregated public schools, and she wrote of great
adversities when making the transition to an integrated school, where teachers and students were
predominantly white. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, earned
her B.A. in English from Stanford University in 1973 and her M.A. in English from the University of
Wisconsin–Madison in 1976. In 1983, after several years of teaching and writing, she completed her
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bell hooks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
doctorate in the literature department from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a dissertation
on author Toni Morrison.
Career
[edit]
Her teaching career began in 1976 as an English professor and senior lecturer in Ethnic Studies at
the University of Southern California. During her three years there, Golemics (Los Angeles) released
her first published work, a chapbook of poems titled "And There We Wept" (1978), written under her
pen name, "bell hooks". She adopted her grandmother's name as her pen name because her
grandmother "was known for her snappy and bold tongue, which [she] greatly admired." She put the
name in lowercase letters "to distinguish [herself] from her grandmother." Her name's unconventional
lowercasing signifies what is most important in her works: the "substance of books, not who I am." [3]
She taught at several post-secondary institutions in the early 1980s, including the University of
California, Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University. South End Press (Boston) published her
first major work, Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism in 1981, though it was written years
earlier, while she was an undergraduate student. [4] In the decades since its publication, Ain't I a
Woman? has gained widespread recognition as an influential contribution to postmodern feminist
thought.[5]
Ain’t I a Woman? examines several recurring themes in her later work: the historical impact of
sexism and racism on black women, devaluation of black womanhood, media roles and portrayal, the
education system, the idea of a white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy, the marginalization of black
women, and the disregard for issues of race and class within feminism.
Since the publication of Ain’t I a Woman?, she has become eminent as a leftist and postmodern
political thinker and cultural critic. She targets and appeals to a broad audience by presenting her
work in a variety of media using various writing and speaking styles. As well as having written books,
she has published in numerous scholarly and mainstream magazines, lectures at widely accessible
venues, and appears in various documentaries.
She is frequently cited by feminists as having provided the best solution to the difficulty of defining
something as diverse as "feminism", addressing the problem that if feminism can mean everything, it
means nothing. She asserts an answer to the question "what is feminism?" that she says is "rooted
in neither fear nor fantasy... 'Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and
oppression'". [6]
She has published more than 30 books, ranging in topics from black men, patriarchy and masculinity
to self-help, engaged pedagogy to personal memoirs, and sexuality (in regards to feminism and
politics of aesthetic/visual culture). A prevalent theme in her most recent writing is the community and
communion, the ability of loving communities to overcome race, class, and gender inequalities. In
three conventional books and four children's books, she demonstrates that communication and
literacy (the ability to read, write, and think critically) are crucial to developing healthy communities
and relationships that are not marred by race, class, or gender inequalities.
She has held positions as Professor of African and African-American Studies and English at Yale
University, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and American Literature at Oberlin College in
Oberlin, Ohio, and as Distinguished Lecturer of English Literature at the City College of New York.
A commencement speech hooks gave in 2002 at Southwestern University was considered
controversial. Eschewing the congratulatory mode of traditional commencement speeches, she spoke
of government-sanctioned violence and oppression, and admonished students who went with the
flow. The speech was booed by many in the audience, though "several graduates passed over the
provost to shake her hand or give her a hug."[7]
In 2004 she joined forces with Berea College in Berea, Kentucky as Distinguished Professor in
Residence, [8] where she participated in a weekly feminist discussion group, "Monday Night
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Feminism", a luncheon lecture series, "Peanut Butter and Gender" and a seminar, "Building Beloved
Community: The Practice of Impartial Love".
Her most recent book is entitled belonging: a culture of place, which includes a very candid interview
with author Wendell Berry as well as a discussion of her move back to Kentucky.
Influences
[edit]
Writers who have influenced hooks include abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth (whose speech
Ain't I a Woman? inspired her first major work), Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (whose perspectives
on education she embraces in her theory of engaged pedagogy), Peruvian theologian and Dominican
priest Gustavo Gutierrez, psychologist Erich Fromm, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Buddhist monk
Thich Nhat Hanh, writer James Baldwin, Guyanese historian Walter Rodney, black nationalist leader
Malcolm X, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr (who addresses how the strength of love
unites communities).[9][10]
Teaching to Transgress
[edit]
This section may require copy-editing.
In her book Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, hooks investigated the
classroom as a seat of constraint and yet also as a potential locus for liberation. This pattern showed
that the teacher has the currency of knowledge and deposits it into the students’ minds where it is
left and took off at a further time. [vague] Against this pedagogy, she argued that the routine of control
and the inappropriate exercise of power often enhance the dynamic of the powerful teacher and dull
the enthusiasm, objectified students in class. [vague] This situation leads to most students’ lessons
being obedience to authority. As she writes: “Those boundaries that would confine each pupil to a
rote, assembly-line approach to learning.” [11] She advocated that the university should instead
encourage students and teachers to transgress. She looked for a way to use collective effort to make
learning more relaxing and exciting. She described teaching as serving “as a catalyst that calls
everyone to become more and more engaged…”. [12] Since she had to enter the classroom as a total
individual, she realized that authority and experience can exclude and silence students, and that the
teacher had to disperse the students’ attention from her voice.[vague] At the same time, she
recognized that decentralization of authority would match revolt from students.[vague] What she
advocates pedagogically contributes to the model education system.
Criticism
[edit]
She has attracted a measure of criticism, often from conservative writers. Peter Schweizer has
accused her of hypocrisy in sexual politics.[13] One passage writer David Horowitz has specifically
objected to is a discussion in the first chapter of Killing Rage, in which she states that she is "sitting
beside an anonymous white male that [she] long[s] to murder". [14] She explains that her impulse was
occasioned by a ticket/boarding pass error resulting in the harassment of her black, female friend;
she sees this dispute as symbolic of the role of racism and sexism in American society.
Awards and nominations
Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics: The American Book Awards/ Before Columbus
Foundation Award (1991)
Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism: "One of the twenty most influential women’s
books in the last 20 years" by Publishers Weekly (1992)
bell hooks: The Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Fund (1994)
Happy to Be Nappy: NAACP Image Award nominee (2001)
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bell hooks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Homemade Love: The Bank Street College Children's Book of the Year (2002)
Salvation: Black People and Love: Hurston Wright Legacy Award nominee (2002)
bell hooks: Utne Reader's "100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life"
bell hooks: The Atlantic Monthly's "One of our nation’s leading public intellectuals"
Select bibliography
[edit]
Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism (1981) ISBN 0-89608-129-X
All About Love: New Visions (2000) ISBN 0-06-095947-9
And There We Wept: Poems. (1978). OCLC 6230231
.
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics (1995) ISBN 1-56584-263-4
Be Boy Buzz (2002) ISBN 0-7868-0814-4
Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992) ISBN 0-89608-433-7
Bone Black: memories of girlhood (1996) ISBN 0-8050-5512-6
Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (1991) (with Cornel West) ISBN 0-89608-414-0
Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002) ISBN 0-06-093829-3
Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000) ISBN 0-89608-629-1
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984) ISBN 0-89608-614-3
Happy to be Nappy (1999) ISBN 0-7868-0427-0
Homemade Love (2002) ISBN 0-7868-0643-5
Justice: Childhood Love Lessons (2000). ISBN 0688168442. OCLC 41606283
.
Killing Rage: Ending Racism (1995) ISBN 0-8050-5027-2
Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (1994) ISBN 0-415-90811-6
Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies (1996) . ISBN 0415918235.
OCLC 35229108 .
Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work (1999) ISBN 0-8050-5910-5
Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-esteem (2003) ISBN 0-7434-5605-X
Salvation: Black People and Love (2001) ISBN 0-06-095949-5
Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-recovery (1993) ISBN 1-896357-99-7
Skin Again (2004) ISBN 0-7868-0825-X
Soul Sister: Women, Friendship, and Fulfillment (2005) ISBN 0-89608-735-2
Space (2004) ISBN 0-415-96816-X
Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989) ISBN 0-921284-09-8
Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (2003) ISBN 0-415-96817-8
Teaching to Transgress: Education As the Practice of Freedom (1994) ISBN 0-415-90808-6
We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity(2004) ISBN 0-415-96926-3
Where We Stand: Class Matters (2000) ISBN 9780415929134
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2003) ISBN 0-7434-5607-6
Witness (2006) ISBN 0-89608-759-X
Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life (1997) ISBN 0-8050-5722-6
Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (1990) ISBN 0-921284-34-9
″Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom‘’ (2010) ISBN 0-978-0-415-96820-1
Film appearances
Black Is... Black Ain't (1994)
Give a Damn Again (1995)
Cultural Criticism and Transformation (1997)
My Feminism (1997)
I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in America (2004)
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bell hooks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Voices of Power (1999)
Baadasssss Cinema (2002)
Writing About a Revolution: A Talk (2004)
Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me (2004)
Is Feminism Dead? (2004)
Further reading
[edit]
Florence, Namulundah. bell hooks's Engaged Pedagogy. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1998.
ISBN 0-89789-564-9 . OCLC 38239473 .
Leitch et al., eds. "Bell Hooks." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2001. pages 2475-2484. ISBN 0-393-97429-4 . OCLC 45023141 .
South End Press Collective, eds. "Critical Consciousness for Political Resistance"Talking About a
Revolution.Cambridge: South End Press, 1998. 39-52. ISBN 0-89608-587-2 . OCLC 38566253 .
Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto, ed. Other Sisterhoods: Literary Theory and U.S. Women of Color.
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN 0-252-02361-7 . OCLC 36446785 .
Wallace, Michelle. Black Popular Culture. New York: The New Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56584-459-9
. OCLC 40548914 .
Whitson, Kathy J. (2004). Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
ISBN 0313327319. OCLC 54529420 .
References
[edit]
1. ^ hooks, bell, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist,
Thinking Black (South End Press, 1989) ISBN
0896083527
2. ^ Dinitia Smith (2006-09-28). "Tough arbiter on
the web has guidance for writers" . The New
York Times: p. E3. "But the Chicago Manual
says it is not all right to capitalize the name of
the writer bell hooks because she insists that it
be lower case."
3. ^ Heather Williams. "bell hooks Speaks Up" .
The Sandspur (2/10/06). Retrieved 2006-0910.
4. ^ Teaching to Transgress, 52.
5. ^ Google Scholar shows 894 citations of Ain't I
a Woman (as of August 30, 2006)
6. ^ bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody:
Passionate Politics Pluto Press, 2000
7. ^ The Austin Chronicle: News: Hooks Digs
In
8. ^ Berea.edu
9. ^ Notes on IAPL 2001 Keynote Speaker, bell
hooks
10. ^ Building a Community of Love, bell hooks &
Thich Nhat Hanh
11. ^ (hooks, Teaching to Transgress 12)
12. ^ (hooks, 11)
13. ^ Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal
Hypocrisy, Peter Schweizer, Doubleday, 2005,
p.9 . ISBN 0385513496. OCLC 62110441 .
14. ^ hooks, bell. Killing Rage, p. 8. Henry Holt &
Co. New York, NY. 1995 . ISBN 0805037829.
OCLC 32089130 .
External links
[edit]
Ejournal website
hooks)
(several critical resources for bell
Real Change News
Royale)
(interview with hooks by Rosette
Wikiquote has a collection of
quotations related to: bell
hooks
bell hooks articles published in Shambhala Sun Magazine
South End Press
(books by hooks published by South End Press)
University of California, Santa Barbara
"Postmodern Blackness"
Whole Terrain
(biographical sketch of hooks)
(article by hooks)
(articles by hooks published in Whole Terrain)
Z Magazine - Challenging Capitalism & Patriarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks[4/25/2011 9:22:59 AM]
(interviews with hooks by Third World
bell hooks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viewpoint)
Ingredients of Love
bell hooks
(an interview with ascent magazine)
at the Internet Movie Database
Categories: 1952 births | African American philosophers | African American writers | American
activists | American feminists | Anti-poverty advocates | Feminist studies scholars | American
feminist writers | Living people | Stanford University alumni | University of California, Santa Cruz
alumni | City University of New York faculty | University of Southern California faculty | San
Francisco State University faculty | Yale University faculty | People from Hopkinsville, Kentucky |
African American studies scholars | Black feminism | University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni |
Lowercase proper names or pseudonyms
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