Belonging: A Culture of Place

Discuss how hooks navigates the tension between nostalgia and critique when recalling her childhood in Kentucky. How does she balance her love for the natural landscape with her awareness of the racial, class, and/or gender oppression embedded in that setting? In what ways does she suggest Kentucky has changed, and how has it stayed the same?

Examine the intersection of environmental ethics and racial justice in hooks’s work. How does she connect ecological sustainability to dismantling white supremacy, and what solutions does she propose? What are the strengths and limitations of her analysis?

Consider the motif of vernacular language as a form of resistance in Belonging. What is the significance of vernacular language in the text? How does hooks’s relationship with it change over time?

Explore the function of intergenerational relationships in shaping hooks’s values. How do figures like Baba, Daddy Gus, and her parents embody differing approaches to life? How do these relationships influence hooks’s vision of community?

Evaluate hooks’s use of personal narrative alongside social critique. How does blending memoir and cultural commentary impact her arguments?

Analyze the concept of “opposition” as presented in Belonging. How does hooks define oppositional living? In what ways can it function as a strategy for both personal integrity and societal transformation?

Discuss the symbolic role of domestic spaces—such as porches, kitchens, and the concrete house—in Belonging. How do these spaces reflect or resist the values of dominator culture?

Compare and contrast hooks’s vision of a “community of care” with contemporary models of living. How might her ideas be applied—or challenged—in today’s social and environmental climate?