Black Feminist Criticism According To Farrah Jasmine Griffin

The author notes that by “mid-1990s black feminist literary criticism was one of the most intellectually exciting and fruitful developments in American literary criticism" and that "today many scholars and critics continue to contribute to and expand the field. " (Griffin, 484). Although the author admits that black feminist criticism has over the years experienced series of backlash, she notes that the work continues to be informed and guarded by its tenets due to various important reasons. For instance, the author notes that today these readings offer a valuable focus on the intersections of gender, race, nationality, sexuality, and class with an eye towards justice and equality. Therefore, the author notes that “black feminist criticism” in the 21st century has continued to offer strategies of reading and mode of analysis which a very useful.

Griffin pinpoints that the understanding of the black women literature requires reconfiguring and reexamining the ways of understanding the lives of these women and the impacts they have in the overall society (Griffin, 491). Therefore by having black criticism the interpretations of their work is usually blow out from the male and white perspectives which in most cases do not explain into details the black women's experiences. Therefore I believe that the voices of black women in literature have been overlooked or marginalized hence forced to pursue other alternative routes in the society. This essay in my view has helped shed light and provided an exposure that is needed in groups that are frequently misrepresented, their works dismissed, misused and misconstrued. After reviewing the essay by jasmine griffin, I believe that the literature of black women needs to be examined using a scope that allows for an essential and comprehensive way of understanding black women, black politics, sexuality, culture and other key areas that have been overlooked by the society.

For instance, when the white women look at the works of black women, they are ill-equipped in dealing with the racial politics subtleties. Therefore, I believe that a black feminist approach towards literature should be embodied on the realization that sex politics, as well as race and class politics, are a factor which is crucially interlocked I the works of many black writers as an absolute necessity. In conclusion, jasmine griffin uncovers, explores, analyzes and theorizes the lives and works of black women in her essay. However, as the literary theory on black feminist advances in the 21st century, I believe these approaches should continue to grapple with ways in which the vectors of gender, class, race, and sexuality intersect. In my opinion, both the literary criticism and black feminist political theorists possess many possibilities and directions for the future that might one day eradicate structural and cultural oppression.