A Kentucky State of Mind: bell hooks' Feminist Geography of Subjectivity

Abstract

abstract: This research applied a feminist geographical framework to analyze the significance of Kentucky in bell hooks' Black feminist theorization. Utilizing narrative inquiry and the constant comparative method to analyze her memoir, Bone Black , poetry collection, Appalachian Elegy , and a collection of essays called Belonging , the findings illuminate the conditions, interactions, and consequences of homemaking for the politics of location. These findings reveal the process of becoming a subject, suggest a feminist geographic approach as an alternative to more abstract understandings of margin and center, and provide a more nuanced understanding of the significance of movement and stillness in knowledge production. The article concludes by suggesting that Kentucky is central to hooks' feminist visions and theories.