Black Women Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject

Black Women Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject.

Carole Boyce Davies. London: Routledge, 1994. 228 pp.

Carole Boyce Davies's Black Women Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject explores new territory beyond the restraints of essentialist constructions, categorizations, and theories on the subject of black women. In this book, Boyce Davies closely examines the ways in which black female subjectivity is determined through literary and cultural constructs, and points out the detrimental effects of these practices on black women. The author covers extensive ground raising poignant questions and arguments on several issues related to black women's experiences, not only in the United States but throughout the African diaspora. As she problematizes the arbitrary notions of constructing a specific black female identity, she obliges the reader to critically analyze existing views and stereotypes about the black woman's experience, identity, community, and theory. The writer urges black women to refuse the subjugation that has been imposed on them and she is optimistic because she believes that black women have the potential to produce transformational, revolutionary discourses that will change their position in society.

Boyce Davies states that the theoretical contribution of her book lies in what she calls "migratory subjectivity," in which the subject (in this case the black woman) is not fixed but is constantly in the process of being constituted. She opens up the intellectual discussion on "migratory subjectivities"...