First published in 1990, Michele Wallace’s Invisibility Blues is widely regarded as a landmark in the history of black feminism.
Wallace’s considerations of the black experience in America include recollections of her early life in Harlem; a look at the continued underrepresentation of black voices in politics, media, and culture; and the legacy of such figures as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison,and Alice Walker. Wallace addresses the tensions between race, gender, and society, bringing them into the open with a singular mix of literary virtuosity and scholarly rigor. Invisibility Blues challenges and informs with the plain-spoken truth that has made it an acknowledged classic.
“One of the most talented and provocative cultural critics now writing in the USA. Listen and learn!” —Cornel West
“Michele Wallace keeps her eyes open and her wits about her. Scrupulously fair, honest, funny, clever, wise.” —Angela Carter
“Invisibility Blues shows why Michele Wallace has long been at the forefront of African-American cultural criticism.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Invisibility Blues is a warm book, even a hopeful one. Simultaneously confident and vulnerable, full of hard-earned insights into American culture and un-starry-eyed evaluations of the available role models, it is the unfinished saga of a proud outsider trying to make a place for herself and her sisters.” —Lucy R. Lippard
Michele Wallace is currently Professor of English at CUNY’s Graduate Center and City College. She is a leading black feminist cultural critic and writer. She is the author of numerous books, including Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman.
First published in 1990, Michele Wallace’s Invisibility Blues is widely regarded as a landmark in the history of black feminism.
Wallace’s considerations of the black experience in America include recollections of her early life in Harlem; a look at the continued underrepresentation of black voices in politics, media, and culture; and the legacy of such figures as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison,and Alice Walker. Wallace addresses the tensions between race, gender, and society, bringing them into the open with a singular mix of literary virtuosity and scholarly rigor. Invisibility Blues challenges and informs with the plain-spoken truth that has made it an acknowledged classic.
Praise
“One of the most talented and provocative cultural critics now writing in the USA. Listen and learn!” —Cornel West
“Michele Wallace keeps her eyes open and her wits about her. Scrupulously fair, honest, funny, clever, wise.” —Angela Carter
“Invisibility Blues shows why Michele Wallace has long been at the forefront of African-American cultural criticism.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Invisibility Blues is a warm book, even a hopeful one. Simultaneously confident and vulnerable, full of hard-earned insights into American culture and un-starry-eyed evaluations of the available role models, it is the unfinished saga of a proud outsider trying to make a place for herself and her sisters.” —Lucy R. Lippard
Michele Wallace is currently Professor of English at CUNY’s Graduate Center and City College. She is a leading black feminist cultural critic and writer. She is the author of numerous books, including Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman.
