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livsliterarynook 's review for:
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman
Wayward Lives is historical non-fiction which crosses into the realms of sociology and reads much more like fiction because of the style. This makes is accessible and literary and compelling to read. The book is firmly rooted in the lived experiences of Black women and Black queer individuals during the early 20th century. Hartman delves into the intimate lives of many individuals whose stories have been brushed over, forgotten, and attempts to unravel what happened to them, how they lived their lives, and what motivated them. There are elements where Hartman doesn't entirely know the exact details or discussions, but through extensive research into a variety of source material about the individuals she attempts to reconstruct the possibilities of what happened for the reader and reveals these individuals lives.
The book draws away from relying on facts and figures as these often ignore the lived experience of individuals. Hartman uses the historical approach of "reading against the grain" to see what pictures, newspapers, diaries, statistics can show us if we consider what they are not telling us, what they have not shown us.
Hartman also makes the reader think about who has written history, who has compiled these figures, what these figures were compiled for. For example when she looks at the number of female minors sentenced to reformatories during this period, this doesn't showcase that the state was attacking largely women of colour for expressing their sexuality, not upholding Victorian sensibilities and matrimony, even for travelling from work at late hours. These figures criminalise women who were being targeted by the state for the colour of their skin.
Hartman introduces us to many individuals like Gladys Bentley, a womanizer, a breaker of gender norms, an individual who did not comply with the heteronormative and monogoamous behaviours of the time. A queer individual persecuted by the 1930s state laws requiring female performers to apply for licences to perform in men's clothes.
To married couples like Aaron and Eva Perkins segregated by the laws punishing a Black woman because they could and sending her to a reformatory.
This book is full of injustices and angering, but also full of rebellion and lives lived, of refusing to succumb to persecution, of the desire for more. It's a brilliant book that offers a lot of insight and is clearly thoroughly and expertly researched and definitely one I recommend.
Wayward Lives is historical non-fiction which crosses into the realms of sociology and reads much more like fiction because of the style. This makes is accessible and literary and compelling to read. The book is firmly rooted in the lived experiences of Black women and Black queer individuals during the early 20th century. Hartman delves into the intimate lives of many individuals whose stories have been brushed over, forgotten, and attempts to unravel what happened to them, how they lived their lives, and what motivated them. There are elements where Hartman doesn't entirely know the exact details or discussions, but through extensive research into a variety of source material about the individuals she attempts to reconstruct the possibilities of what happened for the reader and reveals these individuals lives.
The book draws away from relying on facts and figures as these often ignore the lived experience of individuals. Hartman uses the historical approach of "reading against the grain" to see what pictures, newspapers, diaries, statistics can show us if we consider what they are not telling us, what they have not shown us.
Hartman also makes the reader think about who has written history, who has compiled these figures, what these figures were compiled for. For example when she looks at the number of female minors sentenced to reformatories during this period, this doesn't showcase that the state was attacking largely women of colour for expressing their sexuality, not upholding Victorian sensibilities and matrimony, even for travelling from work at late hours. These figures criminalise women who were being targeted by the state for the colour of their skin.
Hartman introduces us to many individuals like Gladys Bentley, a womanizer, a breaker of gender norms, an individual who did not comply with the heteronormative and monogoamous behaviours of the time. A queer individual persecuted by the 1930s state laws requiring female performers to apply for licences to perform in men's clothes.
To married couples like Aaron and Eva Perkins segregated by the laws punishing a Black woman because they could and sending her to a reformatory.
This book is full of injustices and angering, but also full of rebellion and lives lived, of refusing to succumb to persecution, of the desire for more. It's a brilliant book that offers a lot of insight and is clearly thoroughly and expertly researched and definitely one I recommend.