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The Resource Not your mother's mammy : the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media, Tracey L. Walters

Not your mother's mammy : the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media, Tracey L. Walters

Creator
Author
Summary
"Not Your Mother's Mammy examines how black artists of the African diaspora, many of them former domestics, reconstruct the black female subjectivities of domestics in fiction, film, and visual and performance art. In doing so, they undermine one-dimensional images of black domestics as victims lacking voice and agency and prove domestic workers are more than the aprons they wear. An analysis of selected media by Alice Childress, Nandi Keyi, Victoria Brown, Kara Walker, Mikalene Thomas, Rene Cox, Lynn Nottage, and others provides examples of generations of domestics who challenged their performative roles of subservience by engaging in subversive actions contradicting the image of the deferential black maid. The artists illustrate that through verbal confrontation, mobilization, passive resistance, and performance, black domestics find their voices, exercise their power, and maintain their dignity in the face of humiliation. Not Your Mother's Mammy brings to life stories of domestics often neglected in academic studies, such as the complexity of interracial homoerotic relationships between workers and employers, or the mental health challenges of domestics that lead to depression and suicide. In line with international movements like #MeToo and #timesup, the women in these stories demand to be heard"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
ix, 235 pages
Contents
  • Overview: The history of black women's domestic labor from the twentieth century to the present
  • Let's hear it from the maid : Alice Childress's Like one of the family
  • Dirty work : the representation of undocumented Caribbean domestic laborers in Nandi Keyi's The true nanny diaries and Victoria Brown's Minding Ben
  • Forbidden kinship : homoerotic desire between the maid and mistress in Zanele Muholi's Massa & Mina(h)
  • A sartorial expression of Frenchness in Ousmane Sembène's Le noir de .... : a francophone revision of Jean Genet's The maids
  • Maid in Hollywood : the art of performance in Theresa Harris's By the way, meet Vera Stark
  • The art of dressing up in Mary Sibande's Long Live the dead queen
  • From the margin to the center : the maid in Édouard Manet's Olympia and the politics of recognition in the artwork of Mickalene Thomas and Renée Cox
  • Kara Walker's "Sugar baby sphinx" : a satirical rendition of the mammy
Isbn
9781978808577
Instance
Label
Not your mother's mammy : the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media
Title
Not your mother's mammy
Title remainder
the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media
Statement of responsibility
Tracey L. Walters
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"Not Your Mother's Mammy examines how black artists of the African diaspora, many of them former domestics, reconstruct the black female subjectivities of domestics in fiction, film, and visual and performance art. In doing so, they undermine one-dimensional images of black domestics as victims lacking voice and agency and prove domestic workers are more than the aprons they wear. An analysis of selected media by Alice Childress, Nandi Keyi, Victoria Brown, Kara Walker, Mikalene Thomas, Rene Cox, Lynn Nottage, and others provides examples of generations of domestics who challenged their performative roles of subservience by engaging in subversive actions contradicting the image of the deferential black maid. The artists illustrate that through verbal confrontation, mobilization, passive resistance, and performance, black domestics find their voices, exercise their power, and maintain their dignity in the face of humiliation. Not Your Mother's Mammy brings to life stories of domestics often neglected in academic studies, such as the complexity of interracial homoerotic relationships between workers and employers, or the mental health challenges of domestics that lead to depression and suicide. In line with international movements like #MeToo and #timesup, the women in these stories demand to be heard"--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
LBSOR/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Walters, Tracey Lorraine
Dewey number
704.9/496404608996073
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
NX652.A37
LC item number
W35 2021
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Women household employees, Black, in art
  • Women household employees, Black, in literature
  • African American women household employees in art
  • African American women household employees in literature
  • Arts, Black
  • English literature
  • American literature
Label
Not your mother's mammy : the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media, Tracey L. Walters
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-219) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Overview: The history of black women's domestic labor from the twentieth century to the present -- Let's hear it from the maid : Alice Childress's Like one of the family -- Dirty work : the representation of undocumented Caribbean domestic laborers in Nandi Keyi's The true nanny diaries and Victoria Brown's Minding Ben -- Forbidden kinship : homoerotic desire between the maid and mistress in Zanele Muholi's Massa & Mina(h) -- A sartorial expression of Frenchness in Ousmane Sembène's Le noir de .... : a francophone revision of Jean Genet's The maids -- Maid in Hollywood : the art of performance in Theresa Harris's By the way, meet Vera Stark -- The art of dressing up in Mary Sibande's Long Live the dead queen -- From the margin to the center : the maid in Édouard Manet's Olympia and the politics of recognition in the artwork of Mickalene Thomas and Renée Cox -- Kara Walker's "Sugar baby sphinx" : a satirical rendition of the mammy
Control code
on1182851886
Dimensions
22 cm
Extent
ix, 235 pages
Isbn
9781978808577
Lccn
2020029109
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
color illustrations
Label
Not your mother's mammy : the black domestic worker in transatlantic women's media, Tracey L. Walters
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-219) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Overview: The history of black women's domestic labor from the twentieth century to the present -- Let's hear it from the maid : Alice Childress's Like one of the family -- Dirty work : the representation of undocumented Caribbean domestic laborers in Nandi Keyi's The true nanny diaries and Victoria Brown's Minding Ben -- Forbidden kinship : homoerotic desire between the maid and mistress in Zanele Muholi's Massa & Mina(h) -- A sartorial expression of Frenchness in Ousmane Sembène's Le noir de .... : a francophone revision of Jean Genet's The maids -- Maid in Hollywood : the art of performance in Theresa Harris's By the way, meet Vera Stark -- The art of dressing up in Mary Sibande's Long Live the dead queen -- From the margin to the center : the maid in Édouard Manet's Olympia and the politics of recognition in the artwork of Mickalene Thomas and Renée Cox -- Kara Walker's "Sugar baby sphinx" : a satirical rendition of the mammy
Control code
on1182851886
Dimensions
22 cm
Extent
ix, 235 pages
Isbn
9781978808577
Lccn
2020029109
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
color illustrations

Subject

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