Kimberly Nichele Brown examines how African American women since the 1970s have found ways to move beyond the "double consciousness" of the colonized text to develop a healthy subjectivity that
attempts to disassociate black subjectivity from its connection to white culture. Brown traces the emergence of this new consciousness from its roots in the Black Aesthetic Movement through
important milestones such as the anthology The Black Woman and Essence magazine to the writings of Angela Davis, Toni Cade Bambara, and Jayne Cortez.
"The revolutionary divas in these works represent a response to the `black woman as victim' argument that informs so much discussion of black women's subjectivity. [These] women writers emerge
from the black folk experience not just as its representatives, but as an embodiment of its potential." Alice A. Deck, University of Illinois
"Kimberly Brown's sweeping critical attention to the crucial, body-political texts of academically unappreciated marvels such as Jayne Cortez and Toni Cade Bambara could not be more welcome.
This uncowed return to the thematics of decolonization is vital---what Black Studies and Black worlds need now more than ever with the world at large." Greg Thomas, author of The Sexual Demon
of Colonial Power and Hip-Hop Revolution in the Flesh
"Displays a richness and depth seldom seen in literary criticism these days."
Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Indiana University Bloomington
