Hortense Spillers facts for kids

Hortense J. Spillers (born in 1942) is an important American literary critic and scholar. She is known for her deep thinking about African-American literature and culture. Currently, she is a professor at Vanderbilt University.

Spillers has written many essays that explore how Black people are shown in books and how their stories are told. Her ideas have been collected in books like Black, White, and In Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture and Comparative American Identities: Race, ..., and Nationality in the Modern Text.

Her Journey and Education

Hortense Spillers went to the University of Memphis, where she earned her first degree in 1964 and a master's degree in 1966. She then earned her Ph.D. in English from Brandeis University in 1974.

While she was a student at the University of Memphis, she even worked as a disc jockey! She played music at WDIA, which was a radio station for Black listeners. Throughout her career, she has taught at several well-known universities, including Haverford College, Wellesley College, Emory University, and Cornell University. Her important work has been recognized with awards from big organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. In 2013, she helped start a scholarly journal called The A-Line Journal.

Her Important Ideas and Writings

Hortense Spillers is especially famous for her essay from 1987 called "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book." This essay is one of the most referenced writings in the study of African-American literature.

Understanding "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe"

This essay is very important because it helps us understand how Black women's identities have been shaped in America. Spillers uses ideas from African-American studies, feminist theory (which looks at women's rights and experiences), and cultural studies to explore this topic. She looks at how language and history have affected the way Black women are seen and understood.

Many other important thinkers, like Frank Wilderson III and Saidiya Hartman, have used Spillers' ideas in their own work. Even though her essay is very influential, Spillers herself does not identify with all the ideas that came from it.

Her Book: Black, White, and in Color

In 2003, Spillers published a book called Black, White, and in Color. This book brings together many of her essays written over the years. One key part of the book is an essay called "Interstices: A Small Drama of Words." In this essay, Spillers looks closely at how Black women have often been unfairly described in books and in society.

She talks about how words like "feminism" and "woman" might not fully capture the experiences of Black women. Spillers highlights the power that comes from being able to speak up and tell your own story. She also points out that Black women often find themselves in a unique position, sometimes feeling like they have to choose between their identity as Black people and their identity as women.

Why She Wrote Her Famous Essay

In a 2006 interview, Hortense Spillers talked about why she wrote "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe." She explained that she felt a sense of urgency and even hopelessness when she wrote it. At that time, many important discussions about critical theory (ways of thinking about literature and society) were not including the experiences of Black women.

Spillers wanted to make sure that Black women's voices and stories were recognized and studied in academic settings. She wrote the essay to create a framework for understanding Black women's lives and contributions, making sure their importance was not ignored.

Challenging Old Ideas About Families

A long time ago, a report called the Moynihan Report suggested some ideas about Black families that were not helpful. This report claimed that certain family structures were "typical" and that Black families often didn't fit this mold. It suggested that if a mother was the main leader in a Black household, it was a problem.

Hortense Spillers' work strongly challenges these old, negative ideas. She argues against the stereotypes that were often used to describe Black women and Black families. Spillers shows how these stereotypes were unfair and did not truly represent the strength and resilience of Black families.

She points out that during slavery, both Black men and women were treated as property, not as people. This terrible history affected family structures. For example, fathers were often separated from their children. Spillers emphasizes that even with these challenges, Black mothers often played a very strong and central role in their families. She argues that a mother being the main leader in a family does not weaken it; instead, it shows the power and importance of Black women as leaders and caregivers.

Connecting with Other Black Feminist Scholars

Hortense Spillers has connections with many other important Black feminist thinkers. For example, the Combahee River Collective, a well-known group of Black feminists, has often referred to her work.

Barbara Smith, another leading Black feminist scholar, mentioned Spillers as one of the people who helped build the field of Black women's studies. Smith shared that she, Spillers, and other notable Black women formed a group called the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston. This shows how Spillers was part of a community of scholars who worked together to bring important new ideas to light.

Her Published Works

Hortense Spillers has written many influential books and articles.

Books

• Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
• Comparative American Identities: Race, ..., and Nationality in the Modern Text. New York: Routledge, 1991.
• (With Marjorie Pryse) Conjuring: Black Women, Fiction, and Literary Tradition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.

Articles

• "Born Again': Faulkner and the Second Birth". Fifty Years after Faulkner, edited by Jay Watson and Ann J. Abadie, University Press of Mississippi, JACKSON, 2016, pp. 57–78.
• "Art Talk and the Uses of History". Small Axe, vol. 19 no. 3, 2015, p. 175–185.
• "Views of the East Wing: On Michelle Obama". Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 6:3, 307–310, 2009.
• "Whatcha Gonna Do?': Revisiting 'Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book': A Conversation with Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Shelly Eversley, & Jennifer L. Morgan". Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 299–309.
• "Twentieth-Century Literature's' Andrew J. Kappel Prize in Literary Criticism, 2007". Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 53, no. 2, 2007, pp. vi–x.
• "The Idea of Black Culture". CR: The New Centennial Review, vol. 6, no. 3, 2006, pp. 7–28.
• "A Tale of Three Zoras: Barbara Johnson and Black Women Writers". Diacritics, vol. 34, no. 1, 2004, pp. 94–97.
• "Topographical Topics: Faulknerian Space". The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 4, 2004, pp. 535–568.
• "Travelling with Faulkner". Critical Quarterly, 45: 8–17, 2003.
• "All the Things You Could Be by Now, If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother': Psychoanalysis and Race". Boundary 2, vol. 23, no. 3, 1996, pp. 75–141.
• "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Post-Date". Boundary 2, vol. 21, no. 3, 1994, pp. 65–116.
• "Moving on Down the Line". American Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1, 1988, pp. 83–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2713143.
• "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book". Diacritics, vol. 17, no. 2, 1987, pp. 65–81.
• "An Order of Constancy': Notes on Brooks and the Feminine". The Centennial Review, vol. 29, no. 2, 1985, pp. 223–248.
• "A Hateful Passion, a Lost Love". Feminist Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, 1983, pp. 293–323.
• "Formalism Comes to Harlem", Black American Literature Forum, vol. 16, no. 2, 1982, pp. 58–63.
• "The Works of Ralph Ellison". PMLA, vol. 95, no. 1, 1980, pp. 107–109.
• "A Day in ihe Life of Civil Rights". The Black Scholar, vol. 9, no. 8/9, 1978, pp. 20–27.
• "Ellison's 'Usable Past': Toward a Theory of Myth". Interpretations, vol. 9, no. 1, 1977, pp. 53–69.
• "A Lament". The Black Scholar, vol. 8, no. 5, 1977, pp. 12–16.
• ": SECOND PRIZE-The Black Scholar Essay Contest: MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE STYLE OF THE BLACK SERMON". The Black Scholar, vol. 3, no. 1, 1971, pp. 14–27.

Reviews

• "Review: Kinship and Resemblances: Women on Women". Feminist Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 1985, pp. 111–125.
• "Review: Lorraine Hansberry: Art of Thunder, Vision of Light. Special Issue of Freedomways". Signs, vol. 6, no. 3, 1981, pp. 526–527.
• "Review: 'GET YOUR ... IN THE WATER AND SWIM LIKE ME': NARRATIVE POETRY FROM BLACK ORAL TRADITION by Bruce Jackson". The Black Scholar, vol. 7, no. 5, 1976, pp. 44–46.
• "Review: Black Popular Culture, by Michele Wallace, Gina Dent; Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. by Michele Wallace; Invisibility Blues--From Pop to Theory by Michele Wallace". African American Review, vol. 29, no. 1, 1995, pp. 123–126.