"Wilentz... makes convincing arguments for the connections between African and Afro-American women’s culture." ―Nellie McKay
"Wilentz's jargon-free, intelligent discussion... will appeal to students in African, African American, and women's literature courses, as well as general readers interested in the emerging field." ―Choice
"Through these works, Wilentz demonstrates the powerful transformation possible through understanding―and embracing―the past, even if that past includes oppression and brutalization." ―Belles Lettres
Binding Cultures investigates the cultural bonds between African and African-American women writers such as Nigerian Flora Nwapa and Ghanaians Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, writers who focus on the role of women in passing on cultural values to future generations, and African-American writers Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Paule Marshall, who self-consciously evoke African culture to help create a more integrated African-American community.

Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspora)

Literature & Fiction

Wilentz, Gay

History & Criticism

Indiana University Press

"The theoretical apparatus which forms the foundation [of "Binding Cultures"] will cause it to be a source that succeeding critics will not be able to ignore...Wilentz has done her research thoroughly, and makes convincing arguments for the connections between African and Afro-American women's culture." - Nellie McKay. The history of their literature predates Black women's acquisition of literacy. Orature, rooted in storytelling and the African/African-American folk tradition, was the province of Black women. Thus, when Black women began to create literary works, they looked to their foremothers, recasting orature into literature. This study examines the cultural bonds between African and African-American women as illustrated in the writings of contemporary authors of the United States and West Africa. The first section explores the writings of Nigerian Flora-wapa and Ghanaians Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, writers who focus on the role of women in passing on cultural values to future generations. The second section of the study is devoted to African-American writers Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Paule Marshall, who in self-conscious evocation of African culture help create a more integrated African-American community.

Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspo)

In Healing Narratives, Gay Wilentz explores the relationship between culture and health. In close reading of works by five women writers - Toni Cade Bambara, Erna Broder, Leslie Marmon Silko, Keri Hulme, and Jo Sinclair-she traces the narrative and structural similarities of a main character moving form a state of mental or physical disease toward wellness through reconnection with her cultural traditions. Whether due to the history of diaspora, colonial oppression, or the subversion of traditional culture by modernity, illness can only be overcome when the cultural construction of disease is recognized and a link to the indigenous is restored. Wilentz's cross-cultural approach-African American, Jamaican, Native American, Maori, and Jewish stories-offers a rich context from which the basis of cultural illness can be examined.

Healing Narratives: Women Writers Curing Cultural Dis-ease

Rutgers University Press

In Healing Narratives, Gay Wilentz explores the relationship between culture and health. In close reading of works by five women writers - Toni Cade Bambara, Erna Broder, Leslie Marmon Silko, Keri Hulme, and Jo Sinclair-she traces the narrative and structural similarities of a main character moving form a state of mental or physical disease toward wellness through reconnection with her cultural traditions. Whether due to the history of diaspora, colonial oppression, or the subversion of traditional culture by modernity, illness can only be overcome when the cultural construction of disease is recognized and a link to the indigenous is restored. Wilentz's cross-cultural approach-African American, Jamaican, Native American, Maori, and Jewish stories-offers a rich context from which the basis of cultural illness can be examined.

United States

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Books by Wilentz, Gay

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wilentz, Gay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspora)

Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspo)

Healing Narratives: Women Writers Curing Cultural Dis-ease

Healing Narratives: Women Writers Curing Cultural Dis-ease