Resisting the Margins: Black Lesbian Self-Definition and Epistemology Open Access
Dorsainvil, Monique (2009)
Published
Abstract
Abstract
Resisting the Margins:Black Lesbian Self-Definition and
Epistemology
by Monique Dorsainvil
In writing this thesis, my goal is to encourage the reader to
take an innovative and
revolutionary view of black lesbians, their relationships, their
history, and the way they
navigated their lived human existence. This thesis engages the
following four questions:
How do black lesbians define themselves? How do they experience the
world around
them? How do black lesbians navigate their identity in a
predominantly white
heterosexual context? How do black lesbians create community and
home?
This thesis is organized into four chapters. The first chapter,
"Resisting the Margins:
Toward a Black Lesbian Epistemology," focuses on the ways in which
knowledge is
produced and reproduced to benefit specific individuals, namely
heterosexual white men.
The chapter seeks to understand black lesbian mechanisms for
knowing and interpreting
lived experiences. The second chapter "Queering the Harlem
Renaissance: Historical
Understandings of Black Lesbian Identity," looks at black lesbian
history in a United
States context. This chapter mainly focuses on black women during
the Harlem
Renaissance in order to debunk the theory that black lesbian women
emerged with the
modern Women, Civil, and Gay Liberation movements. Chapter three of
this thesis,
entitled "The Black Lesbian Paradox: Navigating sexism, racism, and
homophobia in
heterosexual white America," concentrates on the ways in which
black lesbian women
experience interlocking systems of oppression. The final chapter,
"Undoing
Ethnocentrism: Investigating Transnational Understandings of Black
Lesbian Identity,"
investigates black lesbian identity outside of the United States.
This chapter seeks to
understand the experiences of black lesbian women in the social and
cultural context in
which they live. This chapter illustrates how black lesbian
experiences are not universal,
but dependent on a myriad of social, political, cultural, and
economic factors.
Resisting the Margins:Black Lesbian Self-Definition and
Epistemology
by Monique Dorsainvil
Advisor: Dr. Regine Jackson
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Emory College of Arts and
Sciences
of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of
the degree of
Bachelor of Arts/Sciences with Honors
Department of Women's Studies
2009
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................1
CHAPTER 1: Resisting the Margins: Toward a Black
Lesbian
Epistemology
.....................................................................................
6
White Male Epistemology.
.....................................................................6
Black Lesbian Epistemology
..................................................................8
Cheryl Clarke: A Black Lesbian
Standpoint..............................................11
CHAPTER 2: Queering the Harlem Renaissance: Historical
Understandings
of Black Lesbian Identity
.....................................................................16
Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935)
........................................................17
Nella Larsen
(1981-1964)....................................................................18
Angelina Weld-Grimké (1880-1958)
.....................................................19
Mabel Hampton (1902-1989)
...............................................................21
CHAPTER 3: The Black Lesbian Paradox: Navigating Sexism,
Racism, and
Homophobia in Heterosexual, White
America..........................................27
Black Lesbians and Feminists Redefining Feminist
Identity........................27
Audre Lorde on Questions of Silence and
Difference................................33
CHAPTER 4: Undoing Ethnocentrism: Investigating
Transnational
Understandings of Black Lesbian
Identity...............................................40
Voices from the African Diaspora: Conditions of Black
Lesbian Exile...........42
Immigration as a means of personal
survival..........................................43
Conclusion.........................................................................................55
Works
Cited.......................................................................................58
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