Cultural Sites of Critical Insight: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and African American and Native American Women's Writings

Contents

Contents I. INTRODUCTION 11 ON THE “RES” AND IN THE “HOOD”: MAKING CULTURES, LEAVING LEGACIES Angela L. Cotten 3 II. TRANSFORMATIVE AESTHETICS 12 SELF-HELP, INDIAN STYLE? PAULA GUNN ALLEN’S GRANDMOTHERS OF THE LIGHT, WOMANIST SELFRECOVERY , AND THE POLITICS OF TRANSFORMATION AnaLouise Keating 31 13 MAKING THE AWAKENING HERS: PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND THE TRANSPOSITION OF AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY TO CHRISTIAN RELIGIOSITY Elizabeth J. West 47 14 “ANY WOMAN’S BLUES”: SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS AND THE BLUES AESTHETIC Michael A. Antonucci 67 III. CRITICAL REVISIONS 15 THROUGH THE MIRROR: RE-SURFACING AND SELFARTICULATION IN LINDA HOGAN’S SOLAR STORMS Ellen L. Arnold 85 16 THE RED-BLACK CENTER OF ALICE WALKER’S MERIDIAN: ASSERTING A CHEROKEE WOMANIST SENSIBILITY Barbara S. Tracy 105 17 WOMANIST INTERVENTIONS IN HISTORICAL MATERIALISM Angela L. Cotten 121 vii IV. RE(IN)FUSING FEMINISM 18 “BOTH THE LAW AND ITS TRANSGRESSION”: TONI MORRISON’S PARADISE AND “POST”–BLACK FEMINISM Noelle Morrissette 139 19 LUCI TAPAHONSO’S “LEDA AND THE COWBOY”: A GYNOCRATIC, NAVAJO RESPONSE TO YEATS’S “LEDA AND THE SWAN” Maggie Romigh 159 10 MOTHER TIMES TWO: A DOUBLE TAKE ON A GYNOCENTRIC JUSTICE SONG Margot R. Reynolds 171 REFERENCES 191 CONTRIBUTORS 207 INDEX 211 viii CONTENTS ...