Temple University Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-4399-0206-6 | Cloth: 978-1-4399-0204-2 | Paper: 978-1-4399-0205-9 Library of Congress Classification NX652.B33B58 2010 Dewey Decimal Classification 305.488961
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
As a young South African woman of about twenty, Saartjie Baartman, the so-called “Hottentot Venus,” was brought to London and placed on exhibit in 1810. Clad in the Victorian equivalent of a body stocking, and paraded through the streets and on stage in a cage she became a human spectacle in London and Paris. Baartman’s distinctive physique became the object of ridicule, curiosity, scientific inquiry, and desire until and after her premature death. The figure of Sarah Baartman was reduced to her sexual parts.
Black Venus 2010 traces Baartman’s memory in our collective histories, as well as her symbolic history in the construction and identity of black women as artists, performers, and icons. The wide-ranging essays, poems, and images in Black Venus 2010 represent some of the most compelling responses to Baartman. Each one grapples with the enduring legacy of this young African woman who forever remains a touchstone for black women.
Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Holly Bass, Petrushka A Bazin, William Jelani Cobb, Lisa Gail Collins, Renée Cox, J. Yolande Daniels, Carole Boyce Davies, Leon de Wailly, Manthia Diawara, Diana Ferrus, Cheryl Finley, Nikky Finney, Kianga K. Ford, Terri Francis, Sander Gilman, Renée Green, Joy Gregory, Lyle Ashton Harris, Michael D. Harris, Linda Susan Jackson, Kellie Jones, Roshini Kempadoo, Simone Leigh, Zine Magubane, E. Ethelbert Miller, Robin Mitchell, Charmaine Nelson, Tracey Rose, Radcliffe Roye, Bernadette Searle, Lorna Simpson, Debra S. Singer, Penny Siopis, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Michele Wallace, Carla Williams, Carrie Mae Weems, J. T. Zealy, and the editor.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Deborah Willis is a University Professor and chair of the Photography and Imaging Department in the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences. Willis is a Guggenheim, Fletcher, and MacArthur Fellow, as well as a recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation award. Willis is a photographer and curator of African American culture. Her publications include Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs, The Black Female Body A Photographic History with Carla Williams (Temple); and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.
REVIEWS
"Willis (Posing Beauty) offers a comprehensive, inclusive, and coherently organized anthology that embraces 'scholarly and lyrical, historical and reflexive' responses to Baartman, as a woman, as a black woman, as an object, as an icon, as an inspiration to creative artists, and as a catalyst to scholars. The book moves from Baartman's life and times to an assessment of the figure of the “Hottentot Venus” in contemporary art and a broader consideration of the historic public display of black women. Appended is a photo gallery that is as essential and diverse as the texts. This remarkable volume satisfies the academic reader with scholarly essays and moves the general reader with its creative expression, making it fascinating and accessible to any one."
—Publishers Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Venus Hottentot (1825) Elizabeth Alexander
Introduction: The Notion of Venus Deborah Willis
PART I: Sarah Baartman in Context
1. The Hottentot and the Prostitute: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality Sander Gilman
2. Another Means of Understanding the Gaze: Sarah Bartmann in the Development of Nineteenth-Century French National Identity Robin Mitchell
3. Which Bodies Matter? Feminism, Post-Structuralism, Race, and the Curious Theoretical Odyssey of the “Hottentot Venus” Zine Magubane
4. Exhibit A: Private Life without a Narrative J. Yolande Daniels
5. crucifix Holly Bass
PART II: Sarah Baartman’s Legacy in Art and Art History
6. Historic Retrievals: Confronting Visual Evidence and the Imaging of Truth Lisa Gail Collins
7. Reclaiming Venus: The Presence of Sarah Bartmann in Contemporary Art Debra S. Singer
8. Playing with Venus: Black Women Artists and the Venus Trope in Contemporary Visual Art Kianga K. Ford
9. Talk of the Town Manthia Diawara
10. The “Hottentot Venus” in Canada: Modernism, Censorship, and the Racial Limits of Female Sexuality Charmaine Nelson
11. A.K.A. Saartjie: The “Hottentot Venus” in Context (Some Recollections and a Dialogue), 1998/2004 Kellie Jones
12. little sarah Linda Susan Jackson
PART III: Sarah Baartman and Black Women as Public Spectacle
13. The Greatest Show on Earth: For Saartjie Baartman, Joice Heth, Anarcha of Alabama, Truuginini, and Us All Nikky Finney
14. The Imperial Gaze: Venus Hottentot, Human Display, and World’s Fairs Michele Wallace
15. Cinderella Tours Europe Cheryl Finley
16. Mirror Sisters: Aunt Jemima as the Antonym/Extension of Saartjie Bartmann Michael D. Harris
17. My Wife as Venus E. Ethelbert Miller
PART IV: Iconic Women in the Twentieth Century/b>
18. agape Holly Bass
19. Black/Female/Bodies Carnivalized in Spectacle and Space Carole Boyce Davies
20. Sighting the “Real” Josephine Baker: Methods and Issues of Black Star Studies Terri Francis
21. The Hoodrat Theory William Jelani Cobb
Epilogue: I’ve Come to Take You Home (Tribute to Sarah Bartmann Written in Holland, June 1998)
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Temple University Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-4399-0206-6 Cloth: 978-1-4399-0204-2 Paper: 978-1-4399-0205-9
As a young South African woman of about twenty, Saartjie Baartman, the so-called “Hottentot Venus,” was brought to London and placed on exhibit in 1810. Clad in the Victorian equivalent of a body stocking, and paraded through the streets and on stage in a cage she became a human spectacle in London and Paris. Baartman’s distinctive physique became the object of ridicule, curiosity, scientific inquiry, and desire until and after her premature death. The figure of Sarah Baartman was reduced to her sexual parts.
Black Venus 2010 traces Baartman’s memory in our collective histories, as well as her symbolic history in the construction and identity of black women as artists, performers, and icons. The wide-ranging essays, poems, and images in Black Venus 2010 represent some of the most compelling responses to Baartman. Each one grapples with the enduring legacy of this young African woman who forever remains a touchstone for black women.
Contributors include: Elizabeth Alexander, Holly Bass, Petrushka A Bazin, William Jelani Cobb, Lisa Gail Collins, Renée Cox, J. Yolande Daniels, Carole Boyce Davies, Leon de Wailly, Manthia Diawara, Diana Ferrus, Cheryl Finley, Nikky Finney, Kianga K. Ford, Terri Francis, Sander Gilman, Renée Green, Joy Gregory, Lyle Ashton Harris, Michael D. Harris, Linda Susan Jackson, Kellie Jones, Roshini Kempadoo, Simone Leigh, Zine Magubane, E. Ethelbert Miller, Robin Mitchell, Charmaine Nelson, Tracey Rose, Radcliffe Roye, Bernadette Searle, Lorna Simpson, Debra S. Singer, Penny Siopis, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Michele Wallace, Carla Williams, Carrie Mae Weems, J. T. Zealy, and the editor.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Deborah Willis is a University Professor and chair of the Photography and Imaging Department in the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences. Willis is a Guggenheim, Fletcher, and MacArthur Fellow, as well as a recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation award. Willis is a photographer and curator of African American culture. Her publications include Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs, The Black Female Body A Photographic History with Carla Williams (Temple); and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.
REVIEWS
"Willis (Posing Beauty) offers a comprehensive, inclusive, and coherently organized anthology that embraces 'scholarly and lyrical, historical and reflexive' responses to Baartman, as a woman, as a black woman, as an object, as an icon, as an inspiration to creative artists, and as a catalyst to scholars. The book moves from Baartman's life and times to an assessment of the figure of the “Hottentot Venus” in contemporary art and a broader consideration of the historic public display of black women. Appended is a photo gallery that is as essential and diverse as the texts. This remarkable volume satisfies the academic reader with scholarly essays and moves the general reader with its creative expression, making it fascinating and accessible to any one."
—Publishers Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Venus Hottentot (1825) Elizabeth Alexander
Introduction: The Notion of Venus Deborah Willis
PART I: Sarah Baartman in Context
1. The Hottentot and the Prostitute: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality Sander Gilman
2. Another Means of Understanding the Gaze: Sarah Bartmann in the Development of Nineteenth-Century French National Identity Robin Mitchell
3. Which Bodies Matter? Feminism, Post-Structuralism, Race, and the Curious Theoretical Odyssey of the “Hottentot Venus” Zine Magubane
4. Exhibit A: Private Life without a Narrative J. Yolande Daniels
5. crucifix Holly Bass
PART II: Sarah Baartman’s Legacy in Art and Art History
6. Historic Retrievals: Confronting Visual Evidence and the Imaging of Truth Lisa Gail Collins
7. Reclaiming Venus: The Presence of Sarah Bartmann in Contemporary Art Debra S. Singer
8. Playing with Venus: Black Women Artists and the Venus Trope in Contemporary Visual Art Kianga K. Ford
9. Talk of the Town Manthia Diawara
10. The “Hottentot Venus” in Canada: Modernism, Censorship, and the Racial Limits of Female Sexuality Charmaine Nelson
11. A.K.A. Saartjie: The “Hottentot Venus” in Context (Some Recollections and a Dialogue), 1998/2004 Kellie Jones
12. little sarah Linda Susan Jackson
PART III: Sarah Baartman and Black Women as Public Spectacle
13. The Greatest Show on Earth: For Saartjie Baartman, Joice Heth, Anarcha of Alabama, Truuginini, and Us All Nikky Finney
14. The Imperial Gaze: Venus Hottentot, Human Display, and World’s Fairs Michele Wallace
15. Cinderella Tours Europe Cheryl Finley
16. Mirror Sisters: Aunt Jemima as the Antonym/Extension of Saartjie Bartmann Michael D. Harris
17. My Wife as Venus E. Ethelbert Miller
PART IV: Iconic Women in the Twentieth Century/b>
18. agape Holly Bass
19. Black/Female/Bodies Carnivalized in Spectacle and Space Carole Boyce Davies
20. Sighting the “Real” Josephine Baker: Methods and Issues of Black Star Studies Terri Francis
21. The Hoodrat Theory William Jelani Cobb
Epilogue: I’ve Come to Take You Home (Tribute to Sarah Bartmann Written in Holland, June 1998)
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE