'Through the Flower': On Audre Lorde and Intersectionality

Abstract

The article aims to explore the origins of intersectionality through the
legacy of Lorde's feminism and her radical thinking. The concept of
intersectionality has taken on a complex position in feminist scholarship
over the past decade. Many scholars have also considered the
contributions of Audre Lorde to the discussions around intersectionality.
It draws parallels between her ideas and it shows how her ideas are
influenced by both rebellious literary forms and political writing styles.
Lorde's radical feminist works have often been regarded as both a
reflection of identity politics and a shift in situational perception.
Intersectionality is in addition said to be a movement that is trying to
reclaim the ideas of identity politics and develop new ways to understand
the decentred structures of power. The article uses historicocritical and
analytical approaches to argue that the oeuvre of Lorde's feminism
provides a new perspective on the subject. In her works, Lorde describes
a world that is definable only in terms of its relational terms, a world that
is torn apart by the divisions between race, class, sexuality, and gender.
She also describes a world that is capable of being understood only
through its destructive divisions. The world that she is talking about is a
place that needs to be changed through a process of transformation. This
world is also a place where history has been made through the multiple
movements and revolutions that have occurred in it. These are the
contours that define the complex ground that third world feminist politics
are based on.