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

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.