Robin Brooks | University of Pittsburgh (original) (raw)
Papers by Robin Brooks
MELUS, 2021
This introduction provides an overview of the special issue that focuses on the interconnections ... more This introduction provides an overview of the special issue that focuses on the interconnections of Black women’s literary studies with the crises of COVID-19 and ongoing anti-Black violence. More specifically, it considers how the work of three renowned writers, Paule Marshall, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison—which collectively spans over fifty years—offers models for how to reimagine our current circumstances and create more just futures in our national and global communities. The essay identifies and expounds on the overarching question of the special issue: how does the work of Marshall, Shange, and Morrison speak to contemporary affairs and concerns? By engaging this question, this collection of essays offers new insights about these women’s writing in particular and expands the corpus of scholarship on Black women’s writing in general. In the aftermath of the passing of these writers, a collective reappraisal of their oeuvres is a timely and fitting tribute, as each of their...
Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 2018
This article presents a study of R.I.P. (rest in peace) shirts, also known as memorial shirts, wh... more This article presents a study of R.I.P. (rest in peace) shirts, also known as memorial shirts, which are significant and visible pieces in the Movement for Black Lives. While it is true that many people are “being memorialized by a hashtag,” the shirts, which are wearable memorials, are ever-present in the movement as well. Whether displaying the name or face of the deceased person, or a quotation from a famous ancestor like Martin Luther King, Jr., these shirts exert great power. In fact, many people ask how these memorial shirts can simultaneously evoke joy and pain. Just as some see wearing a memorial shirt as a way to honor the memory of a person no longer physically with us, others view it as a trigger that reignites the trauma associated with the person’s death. Hence, the study of memorial shirts necessarily includes an analysis of death, trauma, justice, and spirituality. In this article, I argue that the memorial shirts, or what I call the “shirts of the movement,” operate as a form of visual life writing; the shirts collectively (in reference to the larger movement) and individually (in reference to the deceased person) tell a story. I discuss how shirts of the movement preserve memories and call for action. More specifically, I contend that these shirts are not only symbols of grief, expressions of empathy, and coping mechanisms but are also a public stance against racial injustice and anti-Black racial terror.
Journal of West Indian Literature, 2018
This article examines Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay’s novel Dog-Heart (2010), a novel that tackl... more This article examines Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay’s novel Dog-Heart (2010), a novel that tackles the very real gap between different classes, specifically Kingston’s “uptown” and “downtown” inhabitants. Presenting a cross-class relationship, which is a recurring literary trope in a number of contemporary novels of the African Diaspora, McCaulay explicitly explores class prejudices in Dog-Heart through the portrayals of the protagonists Sahara and Dexter. Additionally, Dog-Heart acts as a cultural lens through which to view the intersections of class relations, globalization and human rights. This article argues that the use of the cross-class relationship trope in McCaulay’s Dog-Heart operates to identify and foreground human rights violations as a demonstration of the limited efficacy of human rights treaties in contemporary Jamaican society.
Drawing on Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk titled " The Danger of a Single St... more Drawing on Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk titled " The Danger of a Single Story, " this article explores how African women writers dispel stereotypes or dangerous single stories that have wrongly categorized the over one billion people that make up the continent of Africa. It argues that writers such as Adichie and Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo expose popular stereotypes about African people in their novels through controversial depictions and subject matters as a way to disrupt these stereotypes. It further contends the writers use stereotypes as a point of entry to relate the complex issues and experiences that people face within African societies. The article examines Bulawayo's debut novel We Need New Names and Adichie's third novel Americanah, highlighting ways the authors reclaim and honor the subjectivity of African people by disrupting simplistic ideas about extreme poverty in African nations and challenging beliefs concerning African immigrant experiences in the United States, respectively. Due to increased migration in our globalized world, it is becoming even more important for individuals to lay aside stereotypical ideas, and these writers reveal how stories can play a part as well as their potential to inspire and humanize. Ultimately, African women writers engaging commonplace stereotypes is significant to the overall enterprise of self-liberation and self-definition.
Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2018
This article is a biography of a nineteenth-century Black women's organization, the Colored Woman... more This article is a biography of a nineteenth-century Black women's organization, the Colored Woman's League (aka Colored Women's League and National League of Colored Women) that is a precursor to the well-known National Association of Colored Women. The CWL was a part of the Black women's club movement beginning in the late nineteenth-century. The article examines how the CWL demonstrated an early pattern of local and national unity among black women’s organizing efforts and how it cultivated its commitment to advancing formal and informal education among Black communities. Recovering the history of a less-examined organization, this article contributes to existing scholarship on Black women’s activist legacies and reveals how, just about thirty years after slavery was abolished in the US, women in the CWL made substantial advancements in communities across the US. We can reflect on their achievements and endeavors so that we can gain, if not inspiration, at least a sense of hope during grievous times in our contemporary period.
Journal of Africana Religions, 2014
Paule Marshall uses a West African cosmology in Praisesong for the Widow (1983) to color the phys... more Paule Marshall uses a West African cosmology in Praisesong for the Widow (1983) to color the physical and spiritual journey of the protagonist Avatara “Avey” Johnson. This cosmology is visible through the presence of African orishas (deities). Though Marshall references other orishas in the novel, including Legba, Erzulie, Yemoja, and Oya, she underscores Ogun by utilizing symbolism related to him throughout the novel. Extending the critical discourse on Praisesong, this article elucidates Ogun’s appearances by examining Marshall’s skillful employment of Ogun symbolism within Avey’s journey. This article further argues that in addition to invoking Ogun because of his association with deeds of “destruction and creation,” Marshall uses Ogun because he is a totemic figure of conquering transitions, and Avey is in a state of transition from destruction to re-creation over the course of the novel.
ProudFlesh: New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness, 2013
JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, 2011
College Language Association Journal, 2017
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2017
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2017
Intro Excerpt: “Ogun: God of Iron” is one of twelve poems in “Mystery: African Gods in the New Wo... more Intro Excerpt: “Ogun: God of Iron” is one of twelve poems in “Mystery: African Gods in the New World,” the final movement of Gardening in the Tropics. In this movement, each poem is named for and features a god or goddess from the pantheon of African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas. The poems are literary representations or manifestations of the gods, who are also known as orishas, spirits, or lwa. In many West African and African diasporic religions, Ogun and the other spirits are messengers of the Supreme Being (or God) and they act as intermediaries between humans and the Supreme Being while often displaying human characteristics and personalities. In these religions, gods and goddesses are associated with and represent one or more aspects of the human and/or natural world. Senior draws on these
associations in her poetic reimagining of the African spirits. As a result, the “Mystery” poems extend Senior’s exploration of the nature theme which she explores from a variety of angles throughout the collection.
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010
INTRO: Merle Hodge‘s Crick Crack, Monkey, first published in 1970, is a significant text in the b... more INTRO: Merle Hodge‘s Crick Crack, Monkey, first published in 1970, is a significant text in the body of anglophone Caribbean literature. The term ―crick, crack‖ refers to a Caribbean oral tradition, call and response technique in which, at the beginning or end of a story or folktale, the storyteller calls "Crick?" and the audience responds "Crack!" The exchange signifies that both the audience and the storyteller are aware that the story is fictional or separate from reality. Crick Crack, Monkey is a bildungsroman or a coming-of-age novel that focuses on the development of a young female protagonist, Tee (Cynthia), in Trinidad. Readers witness the development of Tee under the care of her two aunts, Tantie (Rosa) and Beatrice.
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010
INTRO: Folk culture, specifically Afro-Caribbean religion and Carib history, are critical themes ... more INTRO: Folk culture, specifically Afro-Caribbean religion and Carib history, are critical themes in Zee Edgell‟s Beka Lamb and Michelle Cliff‟s Abeng. The representation of folk culture has been seen by many scholars as a defining element of the region‟s traditions – which have emphasized Afro-Caribbean religion more so than Carib or Amerindian history. Both novels function in a pedagogical fashion to teach readers about the practice of the Nine Night traditional ritual in particular and about the importance of folk religion in general. Consequently, the theme of religion/spirituality infiltrates the narratives in several ways that undermine the hierarchical relation between folk religions and ceremonies such as Nine Night and orthodox Christianity.
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00103097/00001
MELUS, 2021
This introduction provides an overview of the special issue that focuses on the interconnections ... more This introduction provides an overview of the special issue that focuses on the interconnections of Black women’s literary studies with the crises of COVID-19 and ongoing anti-Black violence. More specifically, it considers how the work of three renowned writers, Paule Marshall, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison—which collectively spans over fifty years—offers models for how to reimagine our current circumstances and create more just futures in our national and global communities. The essay identifies and expounds on the overarching question of the special issue: how does the work of Marshall, Shange, and Morrison speak to contemporary affairs and concerns? By engaging this question, this collection of essays offers new insights about these women’s writing in particular and expands the corpus of scholarship on Black women’s writing in general. In the aftermath of the passing of these writers, a collective reappraisal of their oeuvres is a timely and fitting tribute, as each of their...
Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 2018
This article presents a study of R.I.P. (rest in peace) shirts, also known as memorial shirts, wh... more This article presents a study of R.I.P. (rest in peace) shirts, also known as memorial shirts, which are significant and visible pieces in the Movement for Black Lives. While it is true that many people are “being memorialized by a hashtag,” the shirts, which are wearable memorials, are ever-present in the movement as well. Whether displaying the name or face of the deceased person, or a quotation from a famous ancestor like Martin Luther King, Jr., these shirts exert great power. In fact, many people ask how these memorial shirts can simultaneously evoke joy and pain. Just as some see wearing a memorial shirt as a way to honor the memory of a person no longer physically with us, others view it as a trigger that reignites the trauma associated with the person’s death. Hence, the study of memorial shirts necessarily includes an analysis of death, trauma, justice, and spirituality. In this article, I argue that the memorial shirts, or what I call the “shirts of the movement,” operate as a form of visual life writing; the shirts collectively (in reference to the larger movement) and individually (in reference to the deceased person) tell a story. I discuss how shirts of the movement preserve memories and call for action. More specifically, I contend that these shirts are not only symbols of grief, expressions of empathy, and coping mechanisms but are also a public stance against racial injustice and anti-Black racial terror.
Journal of West Indian Literature, 2018
This article examines Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay’s novel Dog-Heart (2010), a novel that tackl... more This article examines Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay’s novel Dog-Heart (2010), a novel that tackles the very real gap between different classes, specifically Kingston’s “uptown” and “downtown” inhabitants. Presenting a cross-class relationship, which is a recurring literary trope in a number of contemporary novels of the African Diaspora, McCaulay explicitly explores class prejudices in Dog-Heart through the portrayals of the protagonists Sahara and Dexter. Additionally, Dog-Heart acts as a cultural lens through which to view the intersections of class relations, globalization and human rights. This article argues that the use of the cross-class relationship trope in McCaulay’s Dog-Heart operates to identify and foreground human rights violations as a demonstration of the limited efficacy of human rights treaties in contemporary Jamaican society.
Drawing on Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk titled " The Danger of a Single St... more Drawing on Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk titled " The Danger of a Single Story, " this article explores how African women writers dispel stereotypes or dangerous single stories that have wrongly categorized the over one billion people that make up the continent of Africa. It argues that writers such as Adichie and Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo expose popular stereotypes about African people in their novels through controversial depictions and subject matters as a way to disrupt these stereotypes. It further contends the writers use stereotypes as a point of entry to relate the complex issues and experiences that people face within African societies. The article examines Bulawayo's debut novel We Need New Names and Adichie's third novel Americanah, highlighting ways the authors reclaim and honor the subjectivity of African people by disrupting simplistic ideas about extreme poverty in African nations and challenging beliefs concerning African immigrant experiences in the United States, respectively. Due to increased migration in our globalized world, it is becoming even more important for individuals to lay aside stereotypical ideas, and these writers reveal how stories can play a part as well as their potential to inspire and humanize. Ultimately, African women writers engaging commonplace stereotypes is significant to the overall enterprise of self-liberation and self-definition.
Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2018
This article is a biography of a nineteenth-century Black women's organization, the Colored Woman... more This article is a biography of a nineteenth-century Black women's organization, the Colored Woman's League (aka Colored Women's League and National League of Colored Women) that is a precursor to the well-known National Association of Colored Women. The CWL was a part of the Black women's club movement beginning in the late nineteenth-century. The article examines how the CWL demonstrated an early pattern of local and national unity among black women’s organizing efforts and how it cultivated its commitment to advancing formal and informal education among Black communities. Recovering the history of a less-examined organization, this article contributes to existing scholarship on Black women’s activist legacies and reveals how, just about thirty years after slavery was abolished in the US, women in the CWL made substantial advancements in communities across the US. We can reflect on their achievements and endeavors so that we can gain, if not inspiration, at least a sense of hope during grievous times in our contemporary period.
Journal of Africana Religions, 2014
Paule Marshall uses a West African cosmology in Praisesong for the Widow (1983) to color the phys... more Paule Marshall uses a West African cosmology in Praisesong for the Widow (1983) to color the physical and spiritual journey of the protagonist Avatara “Avey” Johnson. This cosmology is visible through the presence of African orishas (deities). Though Marshall references other orishas in the novel, including Legba, Erzulie, Yemoja, and Oya, she underscores Ogun by utilizing symbolism related to him throughout the novel. Extending the critical discourse on Praisesong, this article elucidates Ogun’s appearances by examining Marshall’s skillful employment of Ogun symbolism within Avey’s journey. This article further argues that in addition to invoking Ogun because of his association with deeds of “destruction and creation,” Marshall uses Ogun because he is a totemic figure of conquering transitions, and Avey is in a state of transition from destruction to re-creation over the course of the novel.
ProudFlesh: New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness, 2013
JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, 2011
College Language Association Journal, 2017
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2017
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2017
Intro Excerpt: “Ogun: God of Iron” is one of twelve poems in “Mystery: African Gods in the New Wo... more Intro Excerpt: “Ogun: God of Iron” is one of twelve poems in “Mystery: African Gods in the New World,” the final movement of Gardening in the Tropics. In this movement, each poem is named for and features a god or goddess from the pantheon of African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas. The poems are literary representations or manifestations of the gods, who are also known as orishas, spirits, or lwa. In many West African and African diasporic religions, Ogun and the other spirits are messengers of the Supreme Being (or God) and they act as intermediaries between humans and the Supreme Being while often displaying human characteristics and personalities. In these religions, gods and goddesses are associated with and represent one or more aspects of the human and/or natural world. Senior draws on these
associations in her poetic reimagining of the African spirits. As a result, the “Mystery” poems extend Senior’s exploration of the nature theme which she explores from a variety of angles throughout the collection.
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010
INTRO: Merle Hodge‘s Crick Crack, Monkey, first published in 1970, is a significant text in the b... more INTRO: Merle Hodge‘s Crick Crack, Monkey, first published in 1970, is a significant text in the body of anglophone Caribbean literature. The term ―crick, crack‖ refers to a Caribbean oral tradition, call and response technique in which, at the beginning or end of a story or folktale, the storyteller calls "Crick?" and the audience responds "Crack!" The exchange signifies that both the audience and the storyteller are aware that the story is fictional or separate from reality. Crick Crack, Monkey is a bildungsroman or a coming-of-age novel that focuses on the development of a young female protagonist, Tee (Cynthia), in Trinidad. Readers witness the development of Tee under the care of her two aunts, Tantie (Rosa) and Beatrice.
Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010
INTRO: Folk culture, specifically Afro-Caribbean religion and Carib history, are critical themes ... more INTRO: Folk culture, specifically Afro-Caribbean religion and Carib history, are critical themes in Zee Edgell‟s Beka Lamb and Michelle Cliff‟s Abeng. The representation of folk culture has been seen by many scholars as a defining element of the region‟s traditions – which have emphasized Afro-Caribbean religion more so than Carib or Amerindian history. Both novels function in a pedagogical fashion to teach readers about the practice of the Nine Night traditional ritual in particular and about the importance of folk religion in general. Consequently, the theme of religion/spirituality infiltrates the narratives in several ways that undermine the hierarchical relation between folk religions and ceremonies such as Nine Night and orthodox Christianity.