I began by wondering about the gender breakdown of biographies about Black literary figures.
For “Reading Form,” I selected “Biography”, and for “Author Gender,” I selected “woman.” Using the filters, I selected “Late 20th century (1966–1999).” I then repeated the search, selecting “21st century.” I repeated the same process after changing the “Author Gender” to “man” and used the Late 20th Century and 21st Century filters.
Results showed that in the mid-20th century, 2 of the 12 biographies by men are about Black women writers, in the late 20th century, 1 of the 3 biographies published by women focused on a Black woman author, 2 of the 15 total biographies by men, and in the 21st century, 18 of 23 biographies by women focused on a Black woman author, while none of the biographies by men in the 21st century covered the impact of notable Black women literary artists.
This discovery suggests that there was a window in the late 20th century in which scholar/biographers attempted biography projects on a gender different from themselves. It also shows how the Navigator makes it possible to identify trends in biography subjects.
For “Reading Form,” I selected “Biography”, and for “Author Gender,” I selected “woman.” Using the filters, I selected “Late 20th century (1966–1999).” I then repeated the search, selecting “21st century.” I repeated the same process after changing the “Author Gender” to “man” and used the Late 20th Century and 21st Century filters.
Results showed that in the mid-20th century, 2 of the 12 biographies by men are about Black women writers, in the late 20th century, 1 of the 3 biographies published by women focused on a Black woman author, 2 of the 15 total biographies by men, and in the 21st century, 18 of 23 biographies by women focused on a Black woman author, while none of the biographies by men in the 21st century covered the impact of notable Black women literary artists.
This discovery suggests that there was a window in the late 20th century in which scholar/biographers attempted biography projects on a gender different from themselves. It also shows how the Navigator makes it possible to identify trends in biography subjects.
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