BLACK FEMINISM TO POSTCOLONIAL MEMORY: A NEW FROCKING CRITICAL READING OF EYE TO EYE: BLACK WOMAN, HATRED AND ANGER BY AUDRE LORDE

Abstract

The article critically reads the autobiographical essay titled Eye to Eye: Black Woman, Hatred, and Anger written by black feminist theorist Audre Lorde (1984) by means of the prism of two theories, viz., Black Feminism and Postcolonial theory. It delves into the way anger is re-contextualized as an act of resistance and healing by Lorde against white supremacy in the external world and white supremacy in the Black community in the internalized world. Due to the focus on intersectionality of oppression, race, gender, sexuality, and class, the paper has drawn attention to the manner in which Lorde manages the complicated systems of oppression and recovers the emotional and political agony of the Black women. A revolutionary guide to feminist inquiry, confession and empowerment, her writing breaks through white feminist universality and patriarchal silencing not only with her own people, but also amongst others. The article frames Lorde in the broader context of diaspora and African feminism, and addresses how that work both marks a tradition within that tradition but also unmarked a decolonial ethnicity of memory, trauma, and resistance, on behalf of future generations of feminist writers and feminists.