Speaking in Tongues and Dancing Diaspora
Subtitle: Black Women Writing and Performing
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780195116595
Subjects: American fiction, african american authors, history and criticism; American fiction, women authors; African american women; Entertainers; African americans, intellectual life; African americans in literature; Women in literature
Description: Deploying the trope of 'speaking in tongues' to theorise the multivocality of black women's writing, based on the reconstruction of a fundamentally spiritual practice as critical concept, Mae G. Henderson also enlists a second trope, 'dancing diaspora', to theorise the narrativity of black women's dance, based on the notions of 'performing testimony' and 'critical witnessing'. Together, these tropes are meant to signify a tradition of black women writing and performing, a tradition privileging the pre-eminence of voice and narration, along with the roles of listening and witnessing.