Wahneema Lubiano's rich cultural criticism insists on reading
African-American literature and Black popular cultural production
not just as a series of "texts", but as living instances
of Black expressive techniques forged in African diasporic, post-slavery
cultures. Her attention to and interrogation of Black Studies
and cultural studies as fields of knowledge results in a criticism
that explores the tension between "strategic essentialism"
and its foes. In maintaining what bell hooks has called "a
touch of essentialism", Prof. Lubiano's work demands a politics
of representation, spectatorship, and audience formation that
remains attached to the material experience of Black spectators
and readers.
Prof. Lubiano has kindly permitted us to post her bibliography,
to which regular additions will be made. Pending permission ,
a number of her essays will be reproduced at this site.