Women Writing Worldwide Spring 2023 Blog

  Final Blog Post By- Ava Daniels Before reading The Nortons Book of Women’s Lives by Phylis Rose, my thoughts on feminism were not nearly as developed or concrete. Of course I knew the text book definition; feminism is a social, political, and cultural movement that advocates for gender equality and seeks to dismantle systems of oppression based on gender. The core principles of feminism are grounded in the belief that women and other marginalized genders should have the same rights, opportunities, and freedoms as men. But other than that, I really had not put much thought into it. After reading the excerpts from multiple different talented, diverse, and strong women, I now have formed my own understanding of feminism.   Audre Lorde was a feminist from the book that stood out to me. I think that her being black, lesbian, and a women all payed a part in her wanting to advocate for herself as well as women just like her. Someone who reminds me a lot of Audre Lorde is Maya ...

Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman By- Ava Daniels In 1959, Eva Hoffman emigrated with her family from Poland to Canada. In Lost in Translation, she uses this excerpt to talk about this transition and how it impacted her life. In the start of the reading, she talks about how she spent her days learning new words and expressions. Hoffman did not have a private tutor or teacher to teach her these things, so instead she learned new words and expressions through conversations she would have, tv shows, and other interactions. This reminds me of when I went to Australia and had to connect Australian words, dialect, and sayings to what we say here in America. "When my friend Penny tells me that she's envious, or happy, or disappointed, I try laboriously to translate not from English to Polish but from the word back to its source" (388). In this quote, Hoffman is describing how she would learn expressions and how it was hard at first. Hoffman's struggle with losing her nativ...

 Zami : a New Spelling of my Name / Audre Lorde By: Ava Daniels Audre Lorde wrote Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, which was released in 1982. This passage offers a potent examination of Lorde's identity as a Black poet and how the social and political climate of her era—including the effects of war on her life—shaped her experiences. Lorde was raised in Harlem, New York, and was born in 1934, during the height of the Great Depression. She talks about the prejudice and poverty that she encountered as well as the strong sense of community that existed among Black families. Lorde's experiences as a young Black woman during the 1950s and 1960s were shaped by the social and political context of the time, including the Civil Rights Movement, the feminist movement, and WW2. A lot of this excerpt was based around Audre Lorde's early stages of life. Growing up during this time as a black female was not easy to say the least. On top of that, she also grew up poor. Even though the fa...

  Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston By- Ava Daniels      Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston is a seminal work of folklore and anthropology that illustrates the vibrant culture of African American communities in the rural South. Hurston's examination of voodoo, a difficult and frequently misunderstood religious discipline with origins in West Africa, is one of the book's most intriguing features. Hurston references voodoo as a "way of life" as opposed to a religion. She describes her encounters with voodoo practitioners in Louisiana, as well as the rituals and beliefs they shared with her.       Hurston's emphasis on voodoo's relationship to African cultural history is one of the most fascinating features of her writing about the practice. She describes how enslaved Africans brought voodoo to the US and how it developed over time as a means for African Americans to preserve their cultural identity in the face of tyranny. Hurston's writing a...