“An Old Black Woman” and “Zora of Orange County” as Patriarchal Subjects

My essay unpacks what exactly is meant by the term “patriarchy,” and how this ideology impacts Black women’s lives. I take my definition of ideology from Louis Althusser’s Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970), in which he defines “ideology” as a way of thinking, and discusses how these ways of thinking influence social interactions (1300). Reading Gwendolyn Brooks’ 1945 poem, “An Old Black Woman, Homeless and Indistinct,” and Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay, How it Feels to be Coloured Me through an Althussarian lens, we begin to understand how the patriarchy challenges Black women’s self-actualization. For example, in both Brooks’ and Hurston’s work, belittling diction emphasises how Black women are “always already” (Althusser 1304) infantilized by the patriarchy. Furthermore, both writers’ use of chremamorphism elucidates how patriarchal objectification disempowers Black women. Finally, Brooks’ and Hurston’s reliance on allusion suggests that Black women’s behaviour is conditioned by arts that reinforce patriarchal thought. While Brooks’ “Old Black Woman” is made to accept it, Hurston attempts to counter patriarchal oppression. Ultimately, I use Althusser to explore how Brooks’ “Old Black Woman” and Hurston are disempowered by patriarchal ideology as yet another means by which Black women’s behaviour is controlled. Insofar as they comment on the relationship between patriarchal and racist ideologies, Brooks and Hurston are early intersectional activists. We cannot continue our intersectional activism without first understanding what exactly we mean when we say the word “patriarchy,” and how this ideology impacts women—and in particular, Black women, like Brooks’ subject and Hurston herself. Works Cited in Abstract: Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 3rd ed., edited by Vincent B. Leitch, William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, John McGowan, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Jeffrey J. Williams, Norton, 2018, pp. 1285-1311. Brooks, Gwendolyn. “An Old Black Woman, Homeless, and Indistinct.” African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young, Penguin Random House, 2000, p. 289-290. Hurston, Zora Neale. “How it Feels to be Coloured Me.” The Broadview Introduction to Literature: Literary Non-Fiction. 2nd ed., edited by Lisa Chalkyoff, Neta Gordon and Paul Lumsden, Broadview Press, 2018, pp. 40-43.

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