Resistance and liberation discourse in Audre Lorde’s “Sister Outsider”

Abstract

The article focuses on the essays of Audre Lorde — African American writer, Black feminist and activist. Through the lens of African American and Feminist Studies the essay collection “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde is analysed as a political manifesto which critiques the Second Wave feminism, and suggests a unique perspective on issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, women’s erotic and creativity. Although Lorde’s early poetry collections are characterised by the wide usage of authentic imagery and Afro-centric mythology, the later poetry, the 1982 biomythography “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name”, and the 1984 essay collection “Sister Outsider”, are politicised writings in sync with the Black / feminist consciousness. In the essays, Audre Lorde argues that institutionalised rejection of race / gender / class / sexual differences stems from the Western European patriarchal frame thus aggravating discriminating practices. The writer emphasises the role of the oppressed groups — ethnic minorities, women, the working class, in the destruction of the societal patriarchal ‘norms’. Audre Lorde’s essay collection has become instrumental in initiating the feminist discussion on intersectionality, which will later be theorized by Kimberle Crenshaw, and in articulation of the Black feminist ideology. Lorde’s critique of White feminists is triggered by their dismissal of the non-European women’s heritage, and by their unwillingness to acknowledge differences inside the gender group, which for the Black feminist Audre Lorde was an adoption of the patriarchal frame of reference. The poet’s timely theory of differences urges to break up silences concerning societal discriminating practices towards the oppressed groups, thus challenging the hierarchies of powers in the society.