Barbara Christian
Barbara Christian | |
---|---|
Born | Barbara T. Christian (1943-12-12)December 12, 1943 St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands |
Died | June 25, 2000(2000-06-25) (aged 56) Berkeley, Alameda County, California |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | educator, feminist, writer |
Years active | 1963-2000 |
Known for | African-American feminist studies |
Barbara T. Christian (December 12, 1943 – June 25, 2000) was an American author and professor of African-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Among several books, and over 100 published articles, Christian was most well known for the 1980 study Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition.
Early life
Barbara Christian was born on December 12, 1943, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands to Ruth and Alphonso Christian. Her father was a judge in St. Thomas and both of her parents strongly encouraged their children in pursuing academic goals. Christian was an avid reader and questioned why there were no African-American or Afro-Caribbean women included in her education or the stories she read.[1] At the age of fifteen, Christian moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to attend Marquette University, graduating in 1963 cum laude. Though her parents urged her to pursue medicine, Christian enrolled in graduate studies for literature at Columbia University in New York City.[2] The school did not offer black studies at that time, but Christian chose Columbia because it would give her access to the Harlem intellectual community. Becoming friends with Langston Hughes, she was introduced to the works of black writers. Zora Neale Hurston, overlooked at the time, was an influence, especially her work, Their Eyes Were Watching God. During her graduate studies, Christian taught English briefly during 1963 and 1964 at both the College of the Virgin Islands and Hunter College. The following year, she became a lecturer at the City College of the City University of New York and worked in a program to promote higher education to minority and underprivileged scholars, known as Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK). Upon completion of her dissertation, Spirit Bloom in Harlem: The Search for Black Aesthetic during the Harlem Renaissance: The Poetry of Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Jean Toomer, Christian earned her PhD in American and British Literature in 1970.[1]
Career
Immediately following her degree, Christian was promoted to an assistant professorship at City College, teaching English.[1] The following year, she became an assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and in 1972, was a pivotal player in creating the African-American studies department at the university.[2] Committed to increasing educational opportunities for minorities and the disadvantaged, she was a founding member and an instructor at the University Without Walls in 1971.[1] In 1978, Christian was granted tenure at UC Berkeley, the first African American woman to be tenured and the same year she was elected chair of the Department of African American Studies.[1][2][3] During the 1970s, Christian began work editing part of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, which she would continue for the next two decades. She was one of the first scholars to bring the works of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker to the attention of academia.[4]
Christian published her first book, Black Women Novelists:The Development of a Tradition, 1892–1976 in 1980. It was a groundbreaking analysis, being the first comprehensive study, on works from nineteenth century to contemporary times (mid-1970s) of the black feminist literature. The book quickly became a reference for other scholars, leading to the development the academic study of black feminists, and her most known work.[1] Christian held the chair of African American Studies until 1983. In 1985, she published Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers. In it, she argued that an obsession with theory and the use of literature to advance ideological viewpoints were thwarting scholars from focusing on the literary traditions of the work itself.[1] In 1986, Christian was promoted, as the first woman of African descent, to full professor.[2][3] That same year, she became the inaugural chair of the newly created doctoral program of ethnic studies; a position she held for three years.[1] In 1991, Christian received the Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Berkeley[2] and in 1994, was honored with the MELUS Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies Award bestowed by The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.[1][4]
Barbara Christian's "The Race for Theory" was published in 1987 in the academic journal Cultural Critique. The essay gave a state-of-the-field of literary criticism and argued that literary theory was becoming increasingly abstract, disconnected, and expressed in mystifying language. Christian tied this phenomenon directly to a rise in critics being trained solely as academics, without any experience as creative writers.[5] She stated that this method of producing theory helped exclude peoples of color, black women, Latin Americans, and Africans from the category of theorists.[6] It also discounted the many variations in language, style, and genre that comprise theory.[7] Christian wrote against the idea that literary theory should be generalizable or universal, instead calling for specific approaches for every text: "So my 'method,' to use a new 'lit. crit' word, is not fixed but relates to what I read and to the historical context of the writers I read and to the many critical activities in which I am engaged, which may or may not involve writing."[8]
In April 2000, Christian was awarded the UC Berkeley's highest honor, the Berkeley Citation.[1][3] She died on June 25, 2000, from complications from lung cancer.[9]
Selected works
- Christian, Barbara (1980). Black Women Novelist: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-20750-1.
- Christian, Barbara T.; Sterling, Dorothy (1980). Teaching Guide to Accompany 'Black Foremothers, Three Lives' by Dorothy Sterling. Old Westbury, New York: Feminist Press. ISBN 978-0-912-67074-4.
- Christian, Barbara (1985). Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black women writers. New York, New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0-08-031956-8.
- Christian, Barbara (1987). From the Inside Out: Afro-American Women's Literary Tradition and the State. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Center for Humanistic Studies, University of Minnesota. OCLC 15696270.
- Christian, Barbara (1987). Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple' and Other Works: A Critical Commentary. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-64861-9.
- Christian, Barbara (Spring 1987). "The Race for Theory". Cultural Critique. The Nature and Context of Minority Discourse (6). Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press: 51–63. doi:10.2307/1354255. ISSN 0882-4371. JSTOR 1354255. S2CID 147505328.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nedervelt 2016.
- ^ a b c d e The New York Times 2000.
- ^ a b c Berkeleyan 2000.
- ^ a b Online Archive of California 2011.
- ^ Christian, Barbara (Spring 1987). "The Race for Theory". Cultural Critique (6): 52.
- ^ Christian, Barbara (Spring 1987). "The Race for Theory". Cultural Critique (6): 55.
- ^ Christian, Barbara (Spring 1987). "The Race for Theory". Cultural Critique (6): 52.
- ^ Christian, Barbara (Spring 1987). "The Race for Theory". Cultural Critique (6): 62.
- ^ "Barbara Christian, 56, Leader In Modern Literary Feminism". New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
Bibliography
- Nedervelt, Ross Michael (2016). "Christian, Barbara (1943–2000)". In Knight, Franklin W.; Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (eds.). Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-93579-6. – via Oxford University Press's Reference Online (subscription required)
- Russell, Heather D. (November 4, 2015). "Barbara T. Christian Literary Award". Caribbean Studies Association. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: University of the West Indies. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- "Barbara Christian, 56, Leader In Modern Literary Feminism". The New York Times. New York City, New York. July 9, 2000. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- "Barbara Christian, professor and pioneer of contemporary American literary feminism, dies at age 56". Berkeleyan. 29 (1). Berkeley, California: The Regents of the University of California, Public Affairs Office. August 16, 2000. Archived from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- "Finding Aid to the Barbara Christian Papers, 1967-2000". The Online Archive of California. Oakland, California: California Digital Library. 2011. Archived from the original on July 20, 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
External links
- v
- t
- e
- Alta
- Alan Chong Lau
- Bienvenido N. Santos
- Helen Adam
- Lionel Mitchell
- Miguel Algarín
- Nicholasa Mohr
- Peter Blue Cloud
- Robert Kelly
- Rose Drachler
- Susan Howe
- Toni Cade Bambara
- Barbara Christian
- Cecilia Liang
- Evangelina Vigil-Piñón
- Harriet Rohmer
- James D. Houston
- Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn
- John A. Williams
- Joy Kogawa
- Judy Grahn
- Nash Candelaria
- Peter Guralnick
- Seán Ó Tuama
- Cecil Brown
- Gary Snyder
- Howard Schwartz/ Mark Podwal
- Imamu Amiri Baraka
- Jesús Colón
- Joseph Bruchac
- Maurice Kenny
- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
- Miné Okubo
- Paule Marshall
- Ruthanne Lum McCunn / You-shan Tang / Ellen Lai-shan Yeung
- Thomas McGrath
- Venkatesh Kulkarni
- William J. Kennedy
- Angela Jackson
- Arnold Genthe / John Kuo Wei Tchen
- Colleen J. McElroy
- Gary Soto
- Peter Irons
- Keiho Soga / Taisanboku Mori / Sojin Takei / Muin Ozaki
- Louise Erdrich
- Maureen Owen
- May Sarton
- Robert Edward Duncan
- Ron Jones
- Sandra Cisneros
- Sonia Sanchez
- Julia Vinograd
- William Oandasan
- Anna Lee Walters
- Cherríe Moraga / Gloria E. Anzaldúa
- Helen Barolini
- Jeff Hannusch
- Linda Hogan
- Miguel Algarín
- Natasha Borovsky
- Raymond Federman
- Susan Howe
- Terence Winch
- Toshio Mori
- Ai
- Ana Castillo
- Cyn Zarco
- Daniel McGuire
- Dorothy Bryant
- Etheridge Knight
- Gary Giddins
- Harvey Pekar
- James Welch
- John Wieners
- Juan Felipe Herrera
- Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
- Michael Mayo
- Septima Poinsette Clark / Cynthia Stokes Brown
- Terry McMillan
- Allison Blakely
- Charles Olson
- Daisy Bates
- David Halberstam
- Edward Sanders
- Gerald Vizenor
- Jimmy Santiago Baca
- Kesho Y. Scott / Cherry Muhanji / Egyirba High
- Marlon K. Hom
- Benjamin Hoff
- Ronald Sukenick
- Salvatore La Puma
- Toni Morrison
- Wing Tek Lum / Tek Lum Lum
- Adrienne Kennedy
- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
- Daniela Gioseffi
- Elizabeth Woody
- Hualing Nieh
- Itabari Njeri
- James M. Freeman
- John C. Walter / J. Raymond Jones
- John Norton
- José Emilio González
- Sergei Kan
- Lloyd A. Thompson
- Martin Bernal
- Michelle T. Clinton / Sesshu Foster
- Miles Davis
- Paula Gunn Allen
- Shirley Geok-lin Lim / Mayumi Tsutakawa / Margarita Donnelly
- Alejandro Murguía
- bell hooks
- Bruce Wright
- Charley Trujillo
- D. H. Melhem
- Deborah Keenan
- Jessica Hagedorn
- John Edgar Wideman
- Joy Harjo
- Karen Tei Yamashita
- Lucia Berlin
- Mary Crow Dog
- Meridel Le Sueur
- Mill Hunk Herald Collective
- Nora Marks Dauenhauer / Richard Dauenhauer
- R. Baxter Miller
- Thomas Centolella
- A'Lelia Perry Bundles
- Art Spiegelman
- Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Donna J. Haraway
- Fritjof Capra
- José Antonio Burciaga
- Keith Gilyard
- Lucy Thompson
- Norma Field
- Peter Bacho
- Peter Kalifornsky
- Raymond Andrews
- Sandra Scofield
- Sheila Hamanaka
- Stephen R. Fox
- Verlyn Klinkenborg
- William B. Branch / Amiri Baraka / August Wilson
- Asake Bomani / Belvie Rooks
- Christopher Mogil / Peter Woodrow
- Cornel West
- Denise Giardina
- Diane Glancy
- Eugene B. Redmond
- Francisco X. Alarcón
- Gerald Graff
- Jack Beatty
- Leroy V. Quintana
- Katherine Peter
- Nelson George
- Ninotchka Rosca
- Giose Rimanelli
- Eric Drooker
- Graciela Limón
- Gregory J. Reed
- Janet Campbell Hale
- Jill Nelson
- Lawson Fusao Inada
- Nicole Blackman
- Paul Gilroy
- Ronald Takaki
- Rose L. Glickman
- Tino Villanueva
- Virginia L. Kroll
- Abraham Rodriguez
- Herb Boyd / Robert L. Allen
- Denise Chavez
- John Egerton
- John Ross
- Thomas Avena
- Linda Raymond
- Li-Young Lee
- Marianna De Marco Torgovnick
- Marnie Mueller
- Peter Quinn
- Sandra Martz
- Gordon Henry Jr.
- Tricia Rose
- Agate Nesaule
- Arthur Sze
- Chang-Rae Lee
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- E.J. Miller Laino
- Glenn C. Loury
- James W. Loewen
- Joe Sacco / Edward Said
- Kimiko Hahn
- Maria Espinosa
- Robert Viscusi
- Sherman Alexie
- Ron Sakolsky / Fred Weihan Ho
- Stephanie Cowell
- William H. Gass
- Alurista
- Derrick Bell
- Dorothy Barresi
- Guillermo Gómez-Peña
- Louis Owens
- Martín Espada
- Montserrat Fontes
- Noel Ignatiev
- Shirley Geok-lin Lim
- Sunaina Maira
- Thulani Davis
- Tom De Haven
- William M. Banks
- Brenda Knight
- Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
- Angela Y. Davis
- Brenda Marie Osbey
- Don DeLillo
- Jim Barnes
- John A. Williams
- Nancy Rawles
- Nora Okja Keller
- Sandra Benitez
- Scott DeVeaux
- Thomas Lynch
- Alice McDermott
- Anna Linzer
- Brian Ward
- Chiori Santiago
- E. Donald Two-Rivers
- Edwidge Danticat
- Judith Roche / Meg McHutchison'
- Gioia Timpanelli
- Gloria Naylor
- James D. Houston
- Jerry Lipka / Gerald V. Mohatt / Ciulistet Group
- Trey Ellis
- Josip Novakovich
- Lauro Flores
- Luís Alberto Urrea
- Nelson George
- Speer Morgan
- Gary Gach
- Chiori Santiago / Judith Lowry