Unearthing New Dimensions of Black “Womanism” - Poetic Resistance and the Journey from Absence to Self-Representation

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Cart

Significant progress examines white feminist strategies and how black women faced patriarchal ideology, stereotyping, and inferior treatment as enslaved, hypersexualized “machines.” Yet research has paid little attention to black women’s new vision of black “womanism” and its struggle methods. This study clarifies why black women were shaped by white prejudice and patriarchal practices, and demonstrates liberation via poetic resistance—seeking spirituality, worshipping black female deities, restoring maternal joy, and asserting identity. Findings support self-representation and liberation from Eurocentric exclusionary ideology.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time12 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Key problem: silencing and exclusion

Hurston as an example of anti-hegemonic critique

Toward a new vision of black “womanism”

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | Unearthing New Dimensions of Black “Womanism”: Poetic Resistance and the Journey from Absence to Self-Representation
Mounir Ben Zid*
Sultan Qaboos University
Corresponding Author: Mounir Ben Zid, [E-mail: mounir@squ.edu.om](E-mail: mounir@squ.edu.om) | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT
Significant headway has been made in investigating white feminist monolithic strategies and exploring how black females have suffered from patriarchal ideology and stereotyping, and how they were placed in an inferior position and treated as slaves and sexual machines. In research conducted on women of color, however, little attention is paid to black females’ new vision of black “womanism” and its means of struggle. With this in mind, the aim of this study is twofold. First, the goal is to elucidate why black women were victims of white prejudice, despotism, and patriarchal practices. Second, we wish to demonstrate how black females set themselves free from racial ideology and Western hegemony by opting for poetic resistance to achieve hypervisibility, seek their own spirituality, worship their black female deities, restore the joy of their motherhood, and assert their identity. The findings yielded by this research provide support for the key argument that black "womanism" and poetic resistance are the means of self-representation and liberation from Eurocentric, dehumanizing, and exclusionary ideology torepossess one's erased self. | | Article history
Received: September 12, 2019
Accepted: November 16, 2019
Published: December 31, 2019
Volume: 10 Issue: 6
Advance access: November 2019 | | | Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None | | | Key words:
White Feminism,
Black “Womanism”,
Poetic Resistance,
Visibility,
Self-Representation | | INTRODUCTION Early theorists and practitioners of feminist literary criticism were white feminists who, by adopting a monolithic and Eurocentric ideology, perpetuated the silencing of black women and excised dark-skinned female writers from the mainstream literary tradition. Mainstream feminist advocates, together with black scholars, tended to treat women of color as “the mules of the world,” gave little or no place to the writings of women of color, and excluded the work of black women from anthologies and critical studies. Over the past fifty years, a large body of research on the contours of black women has been conducted, whereby most authors have viewed it as grounded in a monolithic white ideology. Among the most flagrant examples of this trend is Zora Neale Hurston who, in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, vehemently attacks white hegemonic strategies and monolithic practices. To signify the abuse of African American women throughout history, Hurston’s protagonist Janie Crawford acknowledges: Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it’s some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don’t know nothin’ but what we see. So de white man thrown down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick up it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don’t tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. (Hurston, 2008, p. 14) Silencing these uprooted voices has been an effective way to prevent deracinated creatures from building an identity, unless it was in accordance with the dictates of their oppressors. Despotism, cruelty, and subjection from the primeval years of bondage to those of colonization have created a massive load under which black women all over the world have attempted to survive. Tyranny in its various forms has placed black women in an inferior position, if not in an invisible stance, as being victims of white patriarchal prejudicesand stereotypes has literally transformed black women into specters,

FAQs

What is the main aim of the study on black “womanism”?

The study aims to explain why black women became victims of white prejudice, despotism, and patriarchal practices, and to show how black women free themselves through poetic resistance to achieve self-representation and liberation.

How does the article describe the effects of white monolithic feminist discourse on black women?

It argues that white feminist, Eurocentric approaches silenced black women and excluded dark-skinned female writers, placing black women in inferior or invisible positions and treating them as sexualized laboring “machines.”

What role does poetic resistance play in the journey described in the paper?

Poetic resistance is presented as the most efficient struggle method, enabling movement from erasure to presence, from margins to the center, and from mute voices to interventions through “herstory” and self-representation.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Cart