Bell Hooks, the Best Cultural Criticism Sees No Need to Separate Politics from the Pleasure of Reading
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Yearning For bell hooks, the best cultural criticism sees no need to separate politics from the pleasure of reading. Yearning collects together some of hooks’s classic and early pieces of cultural criticism from the ’80s. Addressing topics like pedagogy, postmodernism, and politics, hooks examines a variety of cultural artifacts, from Spike Lee’s fi lm Do the Right Th ing and Wim Wenders’s fi lm Wings of Desire to the writings of Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. Th e result is a poignant collection of essays which, like all of hooks’s work, is above all else concerned with transforming oppressive structures of domination. A cultural critic, an intellectual, and a feminist writer, bell hooks is best known for classic books including Ain’t I a Woman, Bone Black, All About Love, Rock My Soul, Belonging, We Real Cool, Where We Stand, Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community, Outlaw Culture, and Reel to Real. hooks is Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, and resides in her home state of Kentucky. This page intentionally left blank Yearning RACE, GENDER, AND CULTURAL POLITICS bell hooks First published 2015 by Routledge 711 Th ird Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Gloria Watkins Th e right of Gloria Watkins to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First edition published by South End Press 1990 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publications, in which portions of this book were previously published: Zeta, Inscriptions, Art Forum, Sojourner, Framework, and Emerge. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data hooks, bell, 1952– Yearning : race, gender, and cultural politics / bell hooks. pages cm Originally published: Boston, MA : South End Press, 1990. Includes bibliographical references. 1. African Americans—Social conditions. 2. African Americans—Intellectual life. 3. African Americans—Race identity. 4. Sex role—United States. 5. Feminism— United States. 6. Politics and culture—United States. 7. Identity politics— United States. 8. United States—Race relations. 9. United States—Social conditions—1980– I. Title. E185.86.H742 2015 305.896073—dc23 2014023245 ISBN: 978-1-138-82174-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-82175-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-74311-0 (ebk) Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro by Apex CoVantage, LLC for you to whom i surrender to you for whom i wait This page intentionally left blank Contents preface to the new edition xi acknowledgments xiii 1. liberation scenes 1 speak this yearning 2. the politics of radical black subjectivity 15 3. postmodern blackness 23 4. the chitlin circuit 33 on black community 5. homeplace 41 a site of resistance 6. critical interrogation 51 talking race, resisting racism 7. refl ections on race and sex 57 vii viii YEARNING 8. representations 65 feminism and black masculinity 9. sitting at the feet of the messenger 79 remembering malcolm x 10. third world diva girls 89 politics of feminist solidarity 11. an aesthetic of blackness 103 strange and oppositional 12. aesthetic inheritances 115 history worked by hand 13. culture to culture 123 ethnography and cultural studies as critical intervention 14. saving black folk culture 135 zora neale hurston as anthropologist and writer 15. choosing the margin as a space of radical openness 145 16. stylish nihilism 155 race, sex, and class at the movies 17. representing whiteness 165 seeing wings of desire 18. counter-hegemonic art 173 do the right thing CONTENTS ix 19. a call for militant resistance 185 20. seductive sexualities 193 representing blackness in poetry and on screen 21. black women and men 203 partnership in the 1990s 22. an interview with bell hooks by gloria watkins 215 no, not talking back to myself, january 1989 23. a fi nal yearning 225 january 1990 selected bibliography 231 This page intentionally left blank Preface to the New Edition Even though I had been writing cultural criticism for maga zines for years, Yearning was the first book length compilation of my work. Putting the diverse essays in this collection together was exciting because it allowed me to express the range of my theoretical interests. Writing about popular culture I could engage the intersections between race, class, and gender. Moreover I had discovered in classroom settings and while giving public lectures that using a visual text, film, art, or television as the base by which to talk about race and gender engaged folks. No matter race, class, gender, everyone seemed to have ideas and ways of thinking about visual narratives that served as a catalyst for meaningful discussion. Focusing critique on cultural productions opened a space for education for critical consciousness that could serve as a pedagogy of liberation both in the academy and in the larger society. Unlike femi nist theory and practice which ultimately demanded commitment to feminist politics and an overall change in society which was experi enced as dangerous and threatening, cultural criticism allowed for a more democratic discourse. Although much critique was written from a progressive or radical perspective it did not have a radical militant agenda as its core foundation. Unlike feminist theory, which was emerging from a more abstract discussion of what it means to challenge patriarchy and create new cultural paradigms, cultural criticism approached from a feminist standpoint could engage audiences more directly by allowing everyone xi xii YEARNING a space to engage in radical critique. And most importantly, it could allow audiences to recognize the interconnectedness of systems of domination. Nowadays it is cool to talk about intersectionality, the overlapping of systems like racism, sexism, class elitism. However inter connectedness is a more vital way o f framing the discourse in that it serves as a constant reminder that we cannot change one aspect of the system without changing the whole. Certainly in the area o f race and representation it became evident that cultural producers might create a work that was progressive in its articulation of an anti-racist agenda while relying on sexist stereotypes to give audiences familiar tropes, thus rendering the work less threat ening. As a critic I hoped to use cultural criticism to aid in our effort to end domination and oppression in all its forms. This focus allows for an inclusive standpoint where one is not required to choose gender over race or vice versa, where there is not demand that issues of class and sexuality be left out o f discussions for fear that radical thinking will be undermined. Radical visionary cultural criticism aims to do more than decon struct cultural production, it endeavors to call attention to alternative modes of creating, to new ways of seeing, thinking, and being. When I began to concentrate attention on cultural criticism I was moved by its potential for inclusive focus. I began to think that just as the intercon nectedness of systems of domination was a necessary standpoint from which to critique cultural production, it also led me to think deeply about ways we were all connected across race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. To build solidarity in our struggles to end domination and oppres sion it seemed vital to call attention to shared humanity, and one loca tion o f that unity was present in our emotional universe. For across all differences of race, gender, class, sexuality, religion was a shared realm o f emotional feeling. Thinking about shared passions and longing I thought about all of us who were and are committed to remaining crit ically aware. I thought o f our passionate collective longing for peace and justice. Thinking that our yearning might serve as a uniting force, I wanted to make the longing of our hearts tied to the quest for freedom. The most essential aspect of this collection is its call to all of us to link personal passion and political quest. Acknowledgments Many of these essays were born in the heat of passionate dia logues, sometimes even at moments of intense emotional pain. Deeply grateful for the loosely constructed “community” of progressive black intellectuals who have been “on my bone,” I thank you! Gwenda, my sister who “takes” the word and spreads it. Ehrai, my childhood friend who is always there for critical exchange. A.J. who never lets me forget the ecstasy of the Word, with whom I talk in the long hours of sleep less nights. Michele Wallace a colleague with whom I go to the wall. Saidiya whose encouragement sustains and makes the journey sweet. Cornel West a true friend of my mind. Paul Gilroy who helps me put the broken bits and pieces of my heart together again. And lastly those wild and funky theorists in the making, “the diva girls”: I thank you. Especially, I thank Dionne whose courage and perserverance light the path, making a way for others. And lastly I am grateful to Tanya, Daughter of the Yam, my spiritual child, whom I have witnessed grow into liberatory consciousness. From student to teacher, she stands by my side—woman to woman, guiding me through the editing of this book, always challenging me to live out the truth of my words.