Living in the Margins of Life: The Intersectionality of Identity, Race, and Sexuality in the Selected Works of Audre Lorde

<p>For Lorde, identity rests in the power of one’s voice; in that having a voice gives one the agency not only to confidently reaffirm one’s personal identity, but to speak against oppressors who endeavor to keep voices silent. In Lorde’s poetry, she addresses those who stand at the margins of society. Lorde states that poetry is a “vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action” (<em>Sister Outsider </em>xi). Lorde’s poetry concerns itself with the intersectionality of identity, marginalization, silence as well as the ways in which these forces interact and affect us in our lives. In my thesis, I explore the formation of identity, using Audre Lorde’s prose and poetry as the foundation for discussing how the intersectionality of race, sex, and sexual orientation contributes to identity and the process of its formation. I discuss, most specifically, the plight that African-American women with non-heteronormative identities face because of the triple marginalization they experience by being women, African-American, and same-sex attracted.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in English (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Literature and Philosophy

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Briona S

Contributors dc:contributor

• Caren Town
• David Dudley

• Intersectionality
• Audre Lorde
• Identity
• Sexuality
• Feminism
• Poetry
• African Languages and Societies
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1254

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-2340