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Ann Allen Shockley (1927 - )
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 Ann
Allen Shockley by Rita B. Dandridge
This is the first book-length bibliography on
Ann Allen Shockley. Despite her consistent and productive output,
the writings of Ann Allen Shockley have been neglected by scholars
during the last four decades, due to the difficulty in locating
her work. This comprehensive list of writings is designed to
facilitate future research on Shockley, to allow for a complete
view of her writings and their critical reception, and to guide
the researcher to the full range of her publications and secondary
sources about her and her works.
 Loving
Her (Northeastern Library of Black Literature) by
Ann Allen Shockley
Originally published in
1974, Loving Her is the first novel by an African American author
to deal explicitly with interracial lesbian love. The
groundbreaking story centers on Renay, a talented black musician
who is forced by pregnancy to marry the abusive, alcoholic Jerome
Lee. When Jerome sells Renay's piano to finance his drinking, she
leaves her destructive marriage, and flees with her young daughter
to Terry, a wealthy white writer whom she met at a supper club.
Terry awakens in Renay a love and sexual desire beyond her erotic
imaginings. Despite the sexist, racist, and homophobic prejudices
they must confront, the mutually supportive couple finds physical
and emotional joy.
When Jerome discovers the nature of Renay and
Terry's friendship, he beats Renay nearly to death and, in a
drunken rage, kidnaps his daughter, who subsequently dies in a car
accident. Grief stricken and guilty about her love for Terry,
Renay feels that God has punished her and breaks off their
relationship to atone for her "sins." In the end, she
returns to Terry and a renewed life.
"In its
exploration of a daring subject boldly shared I think [the novel]
has immense value. It enables us to see and understand, perhaps
for the first time, the choices certain women have made about how
they will live their lives, and allows us glimpses at physical
intimacies between women that have been, in the past, deliberately
ridiculed or obscured. . . .This book was obviously written out of
an earnest passion that its subject be fully acknowledged as
existing. It offers the reader an opportunity to develop a new way
of seeing and caring." -- Ms.
Alice Walker
About the Author
Ann Allen Shockley is Associate Librarian for
Special Collections and University Archivist at Fisk University.
Her previous works include The
Black and the White of It, a collection of short stories,
and Say
Jesus and Come to Me, a novel. She is also the editor of Afro-American
Women Writers, 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide;
Living Black American Authors: A Biographical Directory;
and Handbook of Black Librarianship. She lives in
Nashville, Tennessee. Alycee Lane is Assistant Professor of
English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has
written extensively on the depiction of lesbians and gays in
African American literature.
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by Sherrie A. Inness
Excerpt:
Ann Allen Shockley is the only novelist who
focused on black lesbian lives and reached a broad audience before
the 1980s. In Loving Her (1974), an account of an
interracial love affair, and her other novels, Shockley explores
with sensitivity the difficulties facing African-American
lesbians...
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By Patricia Hill Collins
Excerpt:
For Black women who have already been labeled
the Other by virtue of our race and gender, the threat of being
labeled a lesbian can have a chilling effect on Black women's
ideas and on our relationships; with one another. In speculating
about why so many competent Black women writers and reviewers have
avoided examining lesbianism, Ann Allen Shockley suggests that
"the fear of being labeled a Lesbian, whether they were one
or not" (1983, 84), has been a major deterrent...
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This page hosts a passage from Wilson and
Russell's Divided Sisters: Bridging The Gap Between Black Women
and White Women
Excerpt:
In comparison to White lesbians, African
American lesbians may have a special need to come together for
support, given the greater hatred against them in their community.
An African American author, Ann Allen Shockley, discusses just how
strong this homophobia is in her 1974 novel Loving Her,
dealing with an interracial lesbian affair. The Black heroine,
Renay, who falls in love with a White woman, considers whether she
should "come out" to her best straight Black friend
Fran. Deciding against it, Renay reflects:
Black women were the most vehement about women
loving each other. This kind of love was worse to them than the
acts of adultery or incest, for it was homophile. It was worse
than being inflicted with an incurable disease. Black women
could be sympathetic about illegitimacy, raising the children of
others, having affairs with married men-but not toward
Lesbianism, which many blamed on white women...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
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U V
W X
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| Authors
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Index |
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