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Comparing the Principles of Eastern and Western Feminism: Literature of Fatema Mernissi and Audre Lorde
Abstract
Fatema Mernissi (1940-2015) was a sociologist, historian, and academic raised in Morocco as well as in France. She is considered a champion of feminist literature from her works of nonfiction like Beyond the veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern History (1975) to her works of fiction like Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood (1994). Throughout her extensive bibliography, Mernissi has shared stories of women through all classes and religions. Her critiques of Muslim society proved that women are always changing and, as a result, changing the societies around them. She is a pioneer in feminist literature that has made an irreversible impact on women in Middle Eastern society. Audre Lorde (1935-1992) was a poet, essayist, novelist, and activist from Harlem, New York. A self-proclaimed “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Lorde believed in the interconnectedness of all people. She also recognized the differences between all people and how those differences might unite society. This “warrior poet” reconceptualized feminism to include all races and classes. Both authors focus on women’s intellectual and physical evolution as well as society’s reactions to these developments. Within each of Lorde and Mernissi’s works, the underlying element is power. The purpose of this undergraduate’s research is to explore this power. Different ways that women find power in their identity, their families, their eroticism, and their communities. The method of conducting this research stems from reading Audre Lorde’s “Sister Outsider” and Fatima Mernissi’s “Beyond the Veil: Male- Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society” independently of one another. After analyzing both, this researcher identified many ideas from one work that corresponds and compliments the other work. The following comparative study expands upon these complimentary ideas by summarizing and examining additional works from Toni Morrison and Nawal El Saadawi, authors from the West and the East respectively. This comparative study uses identity, eroticism and rejection of the patriarchy as a form of power, generational differences, and the significance of education as a criterion to analyze these four authors. This researcher works to investigate how feminist authors from the East and West reimagined the definition of womanhood to encompass the growing dynamism apparent in both societies, thereby positively impacting the world as a whole.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Other
Sub Area
Comparative