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Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960
Concentrating on carefully chosen selections from ten writers, Mary Helen Washington explores the work, the realities, and the hopes of black women writers between 1860 and 1960.
Featuring works by Harriet Jacobs, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Pauline E. Hopkins, Fannie Barrier Williams, Marita O. Bonner, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Praise for Invented Lives
“Mary Helen Washington has done more than any other single critic to expand the Afro-American and Anglo-American feminist canons.”— The Women’s Review of Books
“This collection is, in fact, two fine books in at once an anthology and a critical study.”— New York Times Book Review
“The forceful, uncompromising, and distinctive voice of Mary Helen Washington brings together foremothers and daughters . . . in a volume that presents . . . a century of black women’s writing along with a vital new tradition of black feminist criticism.”—Marianne Hirsch, Ms. Magazine
Featuring works by Harriet Jacobs, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Pauline E. Hopkins, Fannie Barrier Williams, Marita O. Bonner, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Praise for Invented Lives
“Mary Helen Washington has done more than any other single critic to expand the Afro-American and Anglo-American feminist canons.”— The Women’s Review of Books
“This collection is, in fact, two fine books in at once an anthology and a critical study.”— New York Times Book Review
“The forceful, uncompromising, and distinctive voice of Mary Helen Washington brings together foremothers and daughters . . . in a volume that presents . . . a century of black women’s writing along with a vital new tradition of black feminist criticism.”—Marianne Hirsch, Ms. Magazine
- GenresNonfictionGrad School
480 pages, Paperback
First published July 21, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 8, 2025
Reread. Good selection to dip into and then note for further exploration. Intros yo each section, thoughtful and well researched.
July 12, 2016
Major Field Prep: 47/133
"Tradition. Now there's a word that nags the feminist critic. A word that has so often been used to exclude or misrepresent women." The distinguishing feature of black women's writing is that they write about black women, which, through systems of exclusion and dismissal, means they long were incompatible with the notion of what is the African American literary tradition. Washington's project, like Carby's, Yellin's and other black feminist critics, is a reconstruction of the literary history that insists on black women's centrality and a rejection of androcentric accounts of history and literature. Authors covered from my lists include: Harriet Jacobs, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
"Tradition. Now there's a word that nags the feminist critic. A word that has so often been used to exclude or misrepresent women." The distinguishing feature of black women's writing is that they write about black women, which, through systems of exclusion and dismissal, means they long were incompatible with the notion of what is the African American literary tradition. Washington's project, like Carby's, Yellin's and other black feminist critics, is a reconstruction of the literary history that insists on black women's centrality and a rejection of androcentric accounts of history and literature. Authors covered from my lists include: Harriet Jacobs, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
February 7, 2014
I missed many train stops while reading this book as the history and wonderful stories was so informative.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews