Document Type
Report
Disciplines
Comparative Literature | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | Latin American Literature | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Women's Studies
Abstract
This bibliography was compiled for both research and teaching purposes, organized into three thematic categories reflecting a hemispheric, anticolonial, and womanist approach to knowledge production. The collection centers Black, Afro-Latin American, and feminist voices, offering alternative epistemologies that challenge Eurocentric, patriarchal, and colonial frameworks commonly reproduced in academic syllabi. It invites professors and students across disciplines to engage with scholarship and storytelling that foreground women's histories, theories, and creative expressions.
The first category, Historical Womanist Literature, examines testimonies, resistance, kinship, and survival of Black women under slavery and colonial rule across the Atlantic world, drawing extensively from histories of gendered enslavement in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. The second category, Anticolonial Womanist Literature, brings together theoretical and political texts that challenge colonial, patriarchal, and white feminist frameworks, highlighting Black women's leadership in shaping anticolonial epistemologies across Brazil, the Caribbean, the United States, and Africa. The third category, Fictional Womanist Literature, highlights novels, poetry, and visual narratives that express womanist ideas through creative form, offering intimate portrayals of identity, memory, love, trauma, and resistance.
The works included serve as both a resource and a template for identifying similar authors, themes, and approaches. They are meant to inspire deeper exploration and incorporation of underrepresented voices in research and curriculum, emphasizing transformative visions rooted in spiritual, ancestral, and collective practices. Many entries include critical thinking questions and detailed annotations to facilitate classroom discussion and independent study.
Recommended Citation
da Conceicao dos Santos, Apoliana, "Research Guide to Womanist Literature: Historical, Anticolonial, and Fictional Perspectives" (2025). FIRE Fund Bibliographies. 3.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/fire_fund/3
Comments
Recommended Citation
Da Conceicao dos Santos, Apoliana, Research Guide to Womanist Literature: Historical, Anticolonial, and Fictional Perspectives (2025). FIRE Fund. 1.