'Through the Flower': On Audre Lorde and Intersectionality

The article aims to explore the origins of intersectionality through thelegacy of Lorde's feminism and her radical thinking. The concept ofintersectionality has taken on a complex position in feminist scholarshipover the past decade. Many scholars have also considered thecontributions of Audre Lorde to the discussions around intersectionality.It draws parallels between her ideas and it shows how her ideas areinfluenced by both rebellious literary forms and political writing styles.Lorde's radical feminist works have often been regarded as both areflection of identity politics and a shift in situational perception.Intersectionality is in addition said to be a movement that is trying toreclaim the ideas of identity politics and develop new ways to understandthe decentred structures of power. The article uses historicocritical andanalytical approaches to argue that the oeuvre of Lorde's feminismprovides a new perspective on the subject. In her works, Lorde describesa world that is definable only in terms of its relational terms, a world thatis torn apart by the divisions between race, class, sexuality, and gender.She also describes a world that is capable of being understood onlythrough its destructive divisions. The world that she is talking about is aplace that needs to be changed through a process of transformation. Thisworld is also a place where history has been made through the multiplemovements and revolutions that have occurred in it. These are thecontours that define the complex ground that third world feminist politicsare based on.