Audre Lorde Criticism
Audre Lorde (1934–1992) stands as a formidable voice in American literature, celebrated for her incisive exploration of race, gender, and identity. A self-described "black lesbian feminist mother lover poet," Lorde's work challenges societal norms and transforms personal and cultural differences into sources of empowerment and self-definition. In her essay Chinosole underscores this transformative power, while Lorde herself articulated the necessity of poetry to combat emotional isolation in her essay "Poems Are Not Luxuries".
Born to West Indian immigrants in New York City, Lorde's journey began at a young age and was marked by her education at Hunter College and Columbia University. Her early career as a librarian and poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College led to the publication of her debut collection, The First Cities, where Dudley Randall highlights her exploration of blackness and identity. This thematic depth is further evident in collections like Coal and The Black Unicorn, where she blends African mythology and personal narrative, a technique noted by Andrea Benton Rushing and critiqued by Michael T. Siconolfi, S.J. for its cohesion.
Lorde's poetry is a vivid engagement with issues of identity, self-worth, and resilience. As Claire Hahn notes, Coal exemplifies her confident artistic vision, while in From a Land Where Other People Live, Joan Larkin emphasizes her powerful expression of rage and identity complexities. Despite criticism from Helen Vendler for lacking symbolic depth in certain works, Lorde's ability to blend the personal with the political remains a defining feature.
Lorde's confrontational style is evident in her politically charged collections such as Our Dead Behind Us and The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance. Julie Parson Nesbitt explores how her unflinching approach to race, gender, and sexuality fosters empowerment and societal transformation. In an interview with Charles H. Rowell, Lorde discusses this commitment to social change and encourages readers to embrace and engage with their own identities.
Throughout her career, Lorde's blending of personal and political narratives has challenged and reshaped discussions on race, gender, and identity. Her legacy, as examined by critics like Jan Clausen, continues to inspire and influence a diverse audience, highlighting the ongoing relevance and power of her work in advocating for a more inclusive and understanding world.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Lorde, Audre (Contemporary Literary Criticism)
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Books Noted: 'The First Cities'
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In the following essay, Dudley Randall considers Audre Lorde's The First Cities as a work that, while featuring vivid natural imagery, primarily explores feelings and relationships, subtly integrating themes of identity and blackness without overt activism.
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Frontiers of Language: Three Poets
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In the following essay, Joan Larkin analyzes Audre Lorde's collection From a Land Where Other People Live, emphasizing its powerful expression of personal and political rage, the complexities of her identity as a black woman, and the resonance of her voice, despite occasional prosaic tendencies, in addressing universal themes.
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Broadsides: Good Black Poems, One by One
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In the following essay, Helen Vendler argues that Audre Lorde's poetry in From a Land Where Other People Live is marked by an acute simplicity and earnestness, eschewing traditional poetic norms to explore themes of motherhood, the inevitability of obsolescence, and the collision of elemental forces through plain speech and artless voices.
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False Poets and Real Poets: 'The New York Head Shop and Museum'
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In the following essay, Helen Vendler critiques Audre Lorde's poetry collection "The New York Head Shop and Museum," asserting that while her narrative poems effectively convey emotion through vivid reportage, her abstract and love poems lack symbolic depth and originality.
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On The Edge of the Estate
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In the following essay, Sandra M. Gilbert examines Audre Lorde's poetry as an expression of her multifaceted alienation and anger, noting her transformation of personal and societal rage into poignant and lyrical artistry, while highlighting her role as an outsider who confronts racial, gender, and professional challenges in a complex urban environment.
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Books: 'Coal'
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In the following essay, Claire Hahn argues that Audre Lorde's Coal blends themes of love's mystery and personal resilience, expressing intense emotion and self-assured identity through poems that transform societal pressures into powerful affirmations of her worth and artistic vision.
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A Year's Poetry
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In the following essay, Hayden Carruth criticizes Audre Lorde's work in The Black Unicorn for being too commonplace, while acknowledging her ability to convey passion and express deep emotional resonance through her poetry.
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Poetry: 'The Black Unicorn'
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In the following essay, Michael T. Siconolfi, S.J. critiques Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn, arguing that while some poems succeed on a small scale, the collection largely suffers from disjointedness, overuse of African mythology, and a lack of coherent symbolism, ultimately detracting from its poetic impact.
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Books in Short: 'The Black Unicorn: Poems'
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In the following essay, Andrea Benton Rushing examines Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn, highlighting how Lorde skillfully reclaims African history and mythology to create rich, non-stereotypical imagery of women, while celebrating the depth of woman-to-woman relationships and the nurturing aspects of women's lives.
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Books Noted: 'The First Cities'
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Lorde, Audre (Poetry Criticism)
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Poems Are Not Luxuries
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In the following essay—which the poet herself described as one of her "core pieces" of expository prose—Lorde characterizes poetry as a "vital necessity" for women: "It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action." This piece was written in 1977.
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Living on the Line: Audre Lorde and Our Dead Behind Us
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In the essay below, Hull conducts a broad appraisal of the themes and issues Lorde addresses in her poetry.
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An interview with Audre Lorde
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In the following essay, Audre Lorde, in conversation with Charles H. Rowell, discusses her relocation to the U.S. Virgin Islands, emphasizing the interplay between her identity as a poet and her engagement with local and global socio-political issues, while highlighting the distinct differences in cultural and political dynamics between living in St. Croix and the mainland U.S.
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Audre Lorde and Matrilineal Diaspora: 'moving history beyond nightmare into structures for the future …'
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In the excerpt below, Chinosole explores the ways in which Lorde's poetry celebrates Black and female differences from the dominant culture as sources of power and self-definition.
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Word Warrior
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In the following review, Clausen uses the coinciding occasions of Lorde's death and the publication of Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New (Revised) to conduct a broad survey of Lorde's life and poetry.
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Richer for Their Bitter Edge
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In the following review, Parson-Nesbitt traces the development of Lorde's poetry as evidenced by the selections in Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New (Revised).
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Myth Smashers, Myth Makers: (Re)Visionary Techniques in the Works of Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde
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In the following excerpt, Keating argues that Lorde incorporates elements of African myths into her poetry and, in doing so, "reclaims a tradition which has been almost entirely erased by western culture."
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Poems Are Not Luxuries
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- Further Reading