Black Venus, 2010 : they called her "Hottentot" / edited by Deborah Willis ; with research assistance by Carla Williams.

Date:
2010
  • Books

About this work

Description

"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"--Publisher's description.

Publication/Creation

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : Temple University Press, 2010.

Physical description

viii, 238 pages, 30 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 26 cm

Contributors

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-222) and index.

Contents

Prologue : The Venus Hottentot (1825) / Elizabeth Alexander -- Introduction : The notion of Venus / Deborah Willis -- Sarah Baartman in Context. The Hottentot and the prostitute : toward an iconography of female sexuality / Sander Gilman -- Another means of understanding the gaze : Sarah Bartmann in the development of nineteenth-century French national identity / Robin Mitchell -- Which bodies matter? Feminism, post-structuralism, race, and the curious theoretical odyssey of the "Hottentot Venus" / Zine Magubane -- Exhibit A : Private life without a narrative / J. Yolande Daniels -- crucifix / Holly Bass -- Sarah Baartman's Legacy in Art and Hart History. Historic retrievals : confronting visual evidence and the imagining of truth / Lisa Gail Collins -- Reclaiming Venus : the presense of Sarah Bartmann in contemporary art / Debra S. Singer -- Playing with Venus : Black women artists and the Venus trope in contemporary visual art / Kianga K. Ford -- Talk of town / Manthia Diawara -- The "Hottentot Venus" in Canada : modernism, censorship, and the racial limits of female sexuality / Charmaine Nelson -- A.K.A. Saartjie : the "Hottentot Venus" in context (some recollections and a dialogue), 1998/2004 / Kellie Jones -- little sarah / Linda Susan Jackson -- Sarah Baartman and Black Women as Public Spectacle. The greatest show on earth : for Saartjie Baartman, Joice Heth, Anarcha of Alabama, Truuginini, and us all / Nikky Finney -- The imperial gaze : Venus Hottentot, human display, and world's fairs / Michele Wallace -- Cinderella tours Europe / Cheryl Finley -- Mirror sisters : Aunt Jemima as the antonym/extension of Saartjie Bartmann / Michael D. Harris -- My wife as Venus / E. Ethelbert Miller -- Iconic Women in the Twentieth Century. agape / Holly Bass -- Black/female/bodies carnivalized in spectacle and space / Carole Boyce Davies -- Sighting the "real" Josephine Baker : methods and issues of Black star studies / Terri Francis -- The hoodrat theory / William Jelani Cobb -- Epilogue : I've come to take you home (tribute to Sarah Bartmann written in Holland, June 1998) / Diana Ferrus.

Awards note

Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Anthology, Multi-Authored, or Edited book in Women's Studies, 2011.

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    DA.AN
    		Open shelves

    Note

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781439902042
  • 1439902046