“THE Love Of Women, Kind As Well As Cruel”: Feminist Alliances And Contested Spaces In Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name
“THE Love Of Women, Kind As Well As Cruel”: Feminist Alliances And Contested Spaces In Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name

Summary/Abstract: Audre Lorde’s biomythography Zami: A New Spelling of My Name is a politically engaged feminist work refl ecting Lorde’s activism and dedication to social transformation. Th is essay reads Zami as a compelling and visionary text relevant for numerous contemporary concerns surrounding whiteness and its pervasiveness, erasure of black women’s voices, intersectionality and forming feminist alliances across diff erences. Drawing on Victoria Burrows’ elaboration of ambivalence as resistance to fi xture and closure, the essay investigates Lorde’s portrayals of women’s networks and alliances as contested spaces. Th e essay highlights the ways in which Lorde utilises diff erence and ambivalence to capture the challenges in forming feminist alliances and invite dialogue, engagement and social action. I maintain that Lorde’s emphasis on embracing diff erences is premised upon dismantling and de-centering whiteness and its oppressive reproduction in feminist politics. Th is in turn enables a truly intersectional and transformational feminist activism built on multiplicities. Th e essay concludes that the biomythography resists closure and prescription and enables spaces of negotiation and critical thinking, allowing for mutual recognition, dialogue and growth.

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