LITERATURE: Black Internationalist Feminism

liquornspice: so-treu: Black Internationalist Feminism Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995 Radicalism and Black feminism in postwar women’s writing Black Internationalist Feminism examines how African American women writers affiliated themselves with the post-World War II Black Communist Left and developed a distinct strand of feminism. This vital yet largely overlooked feminist tradition built upon and critically retheorized the postwar Left’s “nationalist internationalism,” which connected the liberation of Blacks in the United States to the liberation of Third World nations and the worldwide proletariat. Black internationalist feminism critiques racist, heteronormative, and masculinist articulations of nationalism while maintaining the importance of national liberation movements for achieving Black women’s social, political, and economic rights. Cheryl Higashida shows how Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou worked within and against established literary forms to demonstrate that nationalist internationalism was linked to struggles against heterosexism and patriarchy. Exploring a diverse range of plays, novels, essays, poetry, and reportage, Higashida illustrates how literature is a crucial lens for studying Black internationalist feminism because these authors were at the forefront of bringing the perspectives and problems of black women to light against their marginalization and silencing. In examining writing by Black Left women from 1945 to 1995, Black Internationalist Feminism contributes to recent efforts to rehistoricize the Old Left, Civil Rights, Black Power, and second-wave Black women’s movements. source. oh wait who was that the other day saying that black feminism lacks transnational voices? b/c there’s no critical engagement with the power structures used to oppressed you? (answer: cosmo-fascist. forever rong.) You mean Black women exist internationally and have ALWAYS had an international concept of Blackness that informs our theorizing wherever we may be???????????????

liquornspice:

so-treu:

Black Internationalist Feminism

Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995

Radicalism and Black feminism in postwar women’s writing

Black Internationalist Feminism examines how African American women writers affiliated themselves with the post-World War II Black Communist Left and developed a distinct strand of feminism. This vital yet largely overlooked feminist tradition built upon and critically retheorized the postwar Left’s “nationalist internationalism,” which connected the liberation of Blacks in the United States to the liberation of Third World nations and the worldwide proletariat. Black internationalist feminism critiques racist, heteronormative, and masculinist articulations of nationalism while maintaining the importance of national liberation movements for achieving Black women’s social, political, and economic rights.

Cheryl Higashida shows how Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou worked within and against established literary forms to demonstrate that nationalist internationalism was linked to struggles against heterosexism and patriarchy. Exploring a diverse range of plays, novels, essays, poetry, and reportage, Higashida illustrates how literature is a crucial lens for studying Black internationalist feminism because these authors were at the forefront of bringing the perspectives and problems of black women to light against their marginalization and silencing.

In examining writing by Black Left women from 1945 to 1995, Black Internationalist Feminism contributes to recent efforts to rehistoricize the Old Left, Civil Rights, Black Power, and second-wave Black women’s movements.

source.

oh wait who was that the other day saying that black feminism lacks transnational voices? b/c there’s no critical engagement with the power structures used to oppressed you?

(answer: cosmo-fascist. forever rong.)

You mean Black women exist internationally and have ALWAYS had an international concept of Blackness that informs our theorizing wherever we may be???????????????

(via latinegrasexologist)

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