Black Internationalist Feminism

Black Internationalist Feminism examines how African American women writers affiliated themselves with the post-World War II Black Communist Left and developed a distinct strand of feminism. This vital yet largely overlooked feminist tradition built upon and critically retheorized the postwar Left's "nationalist internationalism," which connected the liberation of Blacks in the United States to the liberation of Third World nations and the worldwide proletariat. Black internationalist feminism critiques racist, heteronormative, and masculinist articulations of nationalism while maintaining the importance of national liberation movements for achieving Black women's social, political, and economic rights.

Cheryl Higashida shows how Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou worked within and against established literary forms to demonstrate that nationalist internationalism was linked to struggles against heterosexism and patriarchy. Exploring a diverse range of plays, novels, essays, poetry, and reportage, Higashida illustrates how literature is a crucial lens for studying Black internationalist feminism because these authors were at the forefront of bringing the perspectives and problems of black women to light against their marginalization and silencing.

In examining writing by Black Left women from 1945–1995, Black Internationalist Feminism contributes to recent efforts to rehistoricize the Old Left, Civil Rights, Black Power, and second-wave Black women's movements.|

Cover Title page Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Black Internationalist Feminism: A Definition 1. The Negro Question, the Woman Question, and the "Vital Link": Histories and Institutions 2. Lorraine Hansberry's Existentialist Routes to Black Internationalist Feminism 3. Rosalind on the Black Star Line: Alice Childress, Black Minstrelsy, and Garveyite Drag 4. Rosa Guy, Haiti, and the Hemispheric Woman 5. Audre Lorde Revisited: Nationalism and Second-Wave Black Feminism 6. Reading Maya Angelou, Reading Black Internationalist Feminism Today Notes Bibliography Index|