Order our Zami, a New Spelling of My Name Study Guide, teaching or studying Zami, a New Spelling of My Name. No one has time to read them all, but it’s important to go over them at least briefly. Zami, a New Spelling of My Name - Chapters 22 - 24 Summary & Analysis Audre Lorde This Study Guide consists of approximately 23 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Zami, a New Spelling of My Name. Linda’s power is emphasized by the eroticism that surrounds her. Audre supports Muriel financially. Lorde ultimately decides to get an abortion. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009. Over time, Eudora teaches Audre much about Mexican history. In stark contrast, homosexuality in America was pathologized; homosexuality was not removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1973, and other similar diagnostic categories such as “ego-dystonic homosexuality” were not fully removed from the DSM until 1986 (Herek). This Study Guide consists of approximately 23 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, the protagonist Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an autonomous human being and rebels against social norms by leaving her husband Leónce and having an affair. Get tips and ideas in OUTLINE. Queerness exists in America as a diagnosis instead of a word. Despite the rampant racism of this era that Lorde encountered in her daily life, her mother attempted to shield her from it. She refers to them as “Black dykes,” using the term in a broader sense, “in the sense of powerful and women-oriented women […] And that includes my momma” (Lorde 15). In Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde, Lorde invents a new genre that she calls “biomythography,” a genre in which she can explore her experiences, emotions, and life-journey in a way that emphasizes emotions, eroticism, and the mythological. Please Sign Up to get full document. Chapters 15-18 . They commuted back and forth from Philadelphia to see each other. Ed. Print. Here, Lorde describes the intimacy between mother and daughter in a sensual way, with Linda particularly eroticized with her “warm mother smell […] between her legs.” The eroticism adds to Linda’s power, while it also sparks “Audre’s process of associating the strength and authority of the maternal figure with the pleasure and power of the erotic” (Jacobs).

Taking into consideration that eroticism is not necessarily sexual and that Lorde understands eroticism as a form of female empowerment, one can assume that the eroticism of Lorde’s mother adds to her power as a woman. Key Figures. Taking into account Lorde’s broader perspectives on both lesbianism and the erotic, Linda reads as an empowered Black, queer, female, who helps Audre form her own empowered Black, queer, female identity. Lorde is legally blind from a very young age, isolating her even further from her surroundings and a family from which she does not receive much warmth or affection. Chapter Summaries & Analyses. Access Full Document. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Traditionally, Black females are either over-sexualized/fetishized or made into asexual figures like the Mammy trope. Especially in the first eleven chapters of the book, Linda is portrayed in a particularly erotic way, but also as an emotionally unavailable, harsh woman. Berkeley, CA: Crossing, 1984. She witnesses racism from a young age. The storyteller examines where she took in her quality from and where she discovered … After some unhappy times at Hunter College, she moves to Stamford, Connecticut, to find work in a factory, where the working conditions prove atrocious. She was passionate about Mexican culture and history. Chapters 27-30. Web.

1. Her parents and other adults, especially her mother, discipline her harshly for insolence. Audre also lived with Rhea before going to Mexico. Lorde’s mother was an immigrant from Carriacou, a place that Lorde had never been and could not find on a map until she “was twenty-six years old” (Lorde 14). This allows Lorde to explore various relationships in her life in a unique way that rejects binary opposition and Western/colonial modes of thinking. Introduction-Chapter 2. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. Therefore, Lorde reads her mother as a lesbian.

She continues, pondering what the difference is, coming to the conclusion that there is a certain queerness about powerful women. Access Full Document. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Zami, a New Spelling of My Name. She is elected literary editor of the school's arts magazine and begins writing poetry. Audre Lorde, Chapter 4 from Zami: A New Spelling of My Name 1. Lorde does not speak until age 4, when she declares that she wants to read, and promptly follows through on this desire. Lorde never sees her again, but mentions Kitty will always be part of her.

Through her often rocky relationship with her mother, Lorde longs for emotional intimacy, female community, and home. The author uses italics at various points throughout the book: sometimes … 2017.

[3], "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts", Zami: A Portrait of an Artist as a Black Lesbian, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zami:_A_New_Spelling_of_My_Name&oldid=955570720, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The Branded, Audre's friends at high school, Maxine, Audre's Jewish friend at high school. I could use words to recreate that feeling, rather than to create a dream, which was so much of my writing had been before” (Lorde 160). Special offer for LiteratureEssaySamples.com readers. “Becoming Her Mother’s Mother: Recreating Home and the Self in Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.” Reclaiming Home, Remembering Motherhood, Rewriting History: African American and Afro-Caribbean Women’s Literature in the Twentieth Century. In Cuernavaca, she meets a lot of independent women, mostly lesbians; she has a relationship with one of them, Eudora, and works in a library. Access Full Document. Audre later moved in with Ginger and her Mom, and paid rent for room and board. Ginger introduced Muriel to Audre, as Muriel held the same job at the Stamford factory before Audre did. The whole doc is available only for registered users OPEN DOC.

By naming queerness in a non-pathologized way, Carriacou continues to make a space for queerness within the culture. Lesbianism – The book describes the way lesbians lived in, Racism – The landlord who hangs himself, the ice-cream episode in. While some readers consider the eroticism of Linda by Lorde to be taboo/incestuous, Audre Lorde has a broader perspective of eroticism and the powers it holds. Often times, Black women are seen as either one trope or the other, and both tropes remove the woman’s agency and individual sexual identity; however, Lorde’s use of eroticism is sensual and powerful in a poetic way that defies both stereotypes of Black women’s sexuality. This page was last edited on 8 May 2020, at 15:07. This website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience. Felicia, a.k.a. Book: Zami A New Spelling Of My Name.

Personally, Lorde observes a wider definition of lesbianism in which. Naming and language is extremely important in the development of identity and self-concept, which Lorde recognizes when she goes to Mexico: “For the first time in my life, I had an insight into what poetry could be.

Chapter 31-Epilogue. Eudora, an older woman and Audre's lover in Mexico. Pages: 2 Words: 253 Views: 0. This prompts the eroticized image of Linda, which is not a reflection of physical desires, but of emotional desire instead. She had lost a breast due to cancer. Print. In the text, Lorde writes that "Zami" is "a Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers", noting that Carriacou is the Caribbean island from which her mother immigrated. She was a journalist and alcoholic. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Essay Topics. Audre and Eudora are attracted to one another and find each other beautiful. It started a new genre that the author calls biomythography, which combines history, biography, and myth. Most often, the fights between Lorde and her mother surround her mother’s emotional unavailability. 1 Apr. The connection to the motherland naturalizes and depathologizes Lorde’s homosexuality. After graduation, she leaves home and shares a flat with friends of Jean's (one of The Branded), ceasing contact with her parents and two sisters. Linda and Lorde’s relationship is a main element in the formation of her female, Black, queer identity.

The first half of the novel takes place in Grand Isle, an island off the coast of Louisiana.

Summary. This legend makes space for homosexuality within the culture, hereby naturalizing it. Her two older sisters, Phyllis and Helen, are very close, but are rarely mentioned in Zami and Lorde spends little time with them. It is important to note that Lorde can only find this belonging and community through her mother’s connection to Carriacou. Linda’s stories of Carriacou made Lorde imagine Carriacou as “a sweet place, […] my truly private paradise” (Lorde 14). Finally Audre tells Eudora that she wants to sleep with her. “lesbianism is a subject position derived most importantly from the presence of a powerful maternal figure. While this description seems graphic, it reflects a desire to be intimate with her mother on an emotional level and to connect with her, which is represented by the physical connection that Lorde describes. "Flee", a black lesbian who has a close but platonic relationship with Audre, Lynn, a lesbian who lives with Muriel and Audre for a while and is their mutual lover during this time, Toni, Audre's old acquaintance from high school, who turns out a lesbian. Lehmann, Carolin.