TOWARDS A TRANSNATIONAL BLACK FEMINIST DISCOURSE: WOMEN WRITING AGAINST STATES OF IMPERIALISM, 1975-1989ByRashida L HarrisonThis dissertation project aims to contribute to the current scholarship on transnational black feminisms. The project adds to the refining of nuanced theoretical approaches to specific experiences of black women. I attempt to not only codify a set of theoretical parameters, but also identify prevailing tropes within transnational black feminist discourse. I propose several tools extrapolated from my case study of black British feminist writings of the late 1970s and `80s, as well as novels written by black women writing in both U.S. and English Imperialized spaces. My purview of transnational black feminist discourse is characterized by, a multi ethnic definition of blackness, the understanding of personal identities as multi dimensional and fluid, a practice of a politics of solidarity amongst women fighting oppression globally, a distinct anti-racist and anti-imperial political agenda, and an understanding that Western imperialism creates global inequalities. I engage in close readings of four black women writers, Michelle Cliff, Joan Riley, Gayl Jones and Audre Lorde, as well as writings from two Black British collectives, the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Decent (OWAAD), and the Outwrite collective, distributers of Outwrite a Women's Newspaper. My readings result in several tropes within black women's discourse of this period, which include belonging and unbelonging, visitation and dismemberment, and what I identify as living affectivity. The writings and conscious articulations are critical for locating transnational black feminist discourse as a distinct area of theoretical inquiry.
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