Description
J Finley theorizes sass as a new critical lens to better understand the power of Black women's humor and humanity, and how sass functions as a powerful resource in Black women's expressive repertoire. Challenging mainstream assumptions about ""sassiness"" as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced, Finley instead deploys sass to create a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, gesture, and intent to produce meaning—often humorous—in speaking back to authority. Grounded in an ethnographic approach to Black women's experiences, Finley conducted extensive interviews as well as participant-observation as a critic, audience member, and comic herself to collect and honor the stories that Black women comics tell about themselves. Interdisciplinary and conceptually rigorous, Finley's work shows us how we can and should read Black women's expressions of sass in humor as attempts at social transformation that involve a fundamental critique of power and authority, and a gesture at collective liberation.
Book Information
ISBN 9781469680019
Author J Finley
Format Hardback
Page Count 234
Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
Publisher The University of North Carolina Press