Hortense Spillers

Hortense Spillers
Born 1942
Education B.A, University of Memphis, 1964; M.A. in 1966; Ph.D in English, Brandeis University, 1974.
Occupation Professor, literary critic, feminist scholar
Employer Vanderbilt University
Known for Essays on African-American literature
Notable work "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book", 1987; Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex, and Nationality in the Modern Text, 1991

Hortense Spillers (born 1942) is an American literary critic, Black Feminist scholar and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt University. A scholar of the African diaspora, Spillers is known for her essays on African-American literature in Black, White, and In Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2003 and Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex, and Nationality in the Modern Text, published by Routledge in 1991.

Life

Spillers received her B.A from University of Memphis in 1964, M.A. in 1966, and her Ph.D in English at Brandeis University in 1974. While at the University of Memphis, she was a disc jockey for the all-black radio station WDIA.[1] She has held positions at Haverford College, Wellesley College, Emory University, and Cornell University.[2] Her work has been recognized with awards from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.[3]

Critical work

Spillers is best known for her 1987 scholarly article "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book", one of the most cited essays in African-American literary studies.[4] The essay brings together Spillers' investments in African-American studies, feminist theory, semiotics, and cultural studies to articulate a theory of African-American female gender construction.[5] In the essay, Spillers defines the "symbolic integrity" of "male" and "female," as two subject positions that lose validity and differentiation within captivity (i.e. through dispossession). According to Spillers, ethnicity "de-genders" people by trapping them within a timeless mode of thought, characterizing them always in terms of their ethnic background irrespective of personal identity types of gender, since the "female" within an ethnicity isn’t the same as the "feminine sphere," instead, the female body has been deprived of the feminine.[6][7][7][6][8]

Works

References

  1. "Hortense Spillers". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  2. Issues in Critical Investigation. "Meet the Director".
  3. DeCosta-Willis, Miriam (2008). Notable Black Memphians. Cambria. p. 286. ISBN 9781621968634.
  4. Jarrett, ed., Gene Andrew (2010). A Companion to African American Literature. Wiley. p. 414. ISBN 9781444323481.
  5. Kowaleski-Wallace, ed., Elizabeth (2009). Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory. Routledge. p. 543. ISBN 9780203874448.
  6. 1 2 "Hortense J. Spillers". African American Literature Book Club. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  7. 1 2 "Hortense Spiller’s Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: an American Grammar Book". Plunging the English Ph.D. 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  8. "Hortense Spillers". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2013-03-19.

External links

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