Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)
Studies - András Tarnóc: Voices From the Wild Zone: Three Versions of the Feminist Aesthetic in American Culture
Julia Cooper emphasize centripetality and posit humanism as the school's main characteristic (Karenga 43). Besides Alice Walker the centripetal thrust of womanism is reaffirmed by Vivian Gordon and Clenora Hudson Weems. The former believes that black women are integral partners of black men in their struggle against racism, the latter views the "Africana woman" as a "companion to the Africana man" in his fight for emancipation (Karenga 296). Anna Julia Cooper is considered one of the forerunners of the black feminist movement. Her A Voice from the South (1892) protested against racism, sexism, and classism and pointed at the dual nature of philosophical concepts: There is a feminine as well as masculine side to truth, that these are related, not as inferior or superior, not as better or worse, not as weaker or stronger, but as complements —complements in one necessary and symmetric whole (Karenga 285) Furthermore, Cooper's belief in the priority of community development over individual grievances foreshadows a rejection of the basic tenet of feminism summed up in the slogan "the personal is political." She recognized that the goals of the black feminist movement and of the global empowerment of oppressed people are universal: ...when race, color, sex, condition, are realized to be the accidents, not the substance of life then woman 's lesson is taught and woman's cause is won—not the white woman nor the black woman nor the real woman, but the cause of every man or woman who has writhed silently under a mighty wrong. (798) On the other hand, black feminists along with their Third World sisters reject the racism of white feminists and view black men as the primary obstacle to their cause. Smith considers feminism as a school of thought dedicated to examine the way Third World women live, treat each other, and what they believe. Black feminism, by denying 107
