Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Essay Questions

What stereotypes and myths about poetry does Lorde identify in "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," and how does she counter them?

"Poetry Is Not a Luxury" points out that mainstream western culture, dominated by white men, overvalues rationality and productivity. This culture denigrates poetry, viewing it as a mere amusement geared towards expressing emotion, which is valued less than reason. Moreover, emotion, poetry, and frivolity are all associated with femininity, which is considered inferior to masculinity. Lorde argues that femininity is in no way inferior, and, furthermore, that emotional expression is equally as essential to human happiness and functioning as logical reasoning. Therefore, while she actually agrees with some of the ways poetry has been characterized, she views these qualities as positive and important rather than negative and superficial.

Why does Lorde posit that eroticism is an important political tool?

In "Notes on the Erotic," Lorde argues that eroticism—the emotional response to sensory enjoyment—brings joy to those who experience it. Therefore, a person who is able to nurture their own erotic potential begins to feel keenly the lack of joy and eroticism in other areas of their life, such as the workplace. As a result, they are likely to raise their expectations for life as a whole and demand change, even from people or institutions they once considered unchangeable. Therefore, the erotic can become a catalyst for individual people to pursue political action.

How does Audre Lorde use memoir in her arguments about racism, sexism, and injustice?

Though this is a collection of theoretical works, it is often difficult to discern a firm distinction between theory and memoir in them. This is in keeping with her philosophy that strict distinctions between emotion and reason, or poetry and "serious" pursuits, are arbitrarily imposed by male-dominated western society. Rejecting these distinctions, Lorde uses her experience as a Black lesbian, a cancer survivor, and a parent to illustrate and structure broader arguments. For example, the central argument of "The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action" hinges on an epiphany Lorde recounts having during a period of illness, whereas "The Uses of Anger" includes a list of occasions on which Lorde has been silenced, insulted, or belittled within feminist circles. These recollections lend a feeling of urgency and candidness to even the headiest theoretical discussion.

Discuss the role of audience in Lorde's writing and the effect of these various audiences on the reader's experience.

Though anybody can read Sister, Outsider, many of the individual writings within this book were originally written with a very specific audience in mind. The most explicit instance of this is the piece "An Open Letter to Mary Daly," originally written as a personal response to the work of one of Lorde's contemporaries. A note lets readers know that the essay was originally a personal letter to Daly, who failed to respond, leading Lorde to publish it for a wider readership. The personal tone of the letter, and the additional information that Daly chose not to answer it, intensifies the portrayal of conflict between Daly and Lorde. Several other sections of this collection were originally speeches delivered at gatherings of largely white feminist academics. These, such as "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House," bluntly point out the failures of academic feminism, particularly on issues of race. Meanwhile, some essays, such as "Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger" were originally published for largely Black audiences in magazines like Essence. Generally, Lorde tends to critique the community or individual she is addressing, giving readers who read all of these essays within one collection the feeling that they are getting a privileged glimpse at the way Lorde presents herself in various private situations.

What does Audre Lorde mean when she says that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"? Come up with an example of how a person or group might try to metaphorically dismantle the master's house with the master's tools.

This phrase means that a subjugated person or group can never achieve equality by making use of the tactics or ideas that led to their oppression in the first place. In Lorde's essay of the same name, for instance, she cautions white feminists against perpetuating racism—not only because it is cruel, but because it is a component of the same power structures that lead to gender inequality, and therefore is a hindrance to abolishing that inequality. One possible example of someone trying to "dismantle the master's house" with the master's tools is eco-fascism: eco-fascists attempt to protect the natural world using ideologies of eugenics and racism. Audre Lorde would argue that such approaches are both inhumane and doomed to fail, since they perpetuate ideologies that have, in the past, led to or been embraced by perpetrators of environmental destruction.