Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism

"Woman, Native, Other is located at the juncture of a number of different fields and disciplines, and it genuinely succeeds in pushing the boundaries of these disciplines further. It is one of the very few theoretical attempts to grapple with the writings of women of color" - Chandra Tapade Mohanty. In this first full-length study of Post-Feminism, Trinh Minh-ha examines post-colonial processes of displacement - cultural hybridizations and decentered realities, fragmented selves and multiple identities, marginal voices and languages of rupture. Working at the intersection of several fields - and langauges of rupture. Wokring at the intersection of sevel fields - women's studie, anthropology, critical cultural studies, literary criticism show more and feminist theory, she juxtaposes numerous prevailing contemorary discourse in a form that questions the (male-is-norm) literary and theoretical establishment. She incorporates the poetic in the analytic and stays away from the old way of theorizing through systematic dissection, combination, and recapitulation. Trinh discusess questions of language and writing in relation to the notion of ethnicity and feminity; of identity, authenticity, and difference, of commitment sa to the function and role of the woman writer; and of storytelling as one of the oldest forms of building historical consciousness and as a continuing setting into motion of a feminist problematic in the context of a female living tradition show less

Another reviewer posted the following as a negative review: "no words". I feel the same, but change it to a non-negative; this text is in the realm of my own not understanding, but there is strength in the words that I am not sure I understand. Is this poetry, a novel, literary criticism...maybe it is all of that, as a story, an important one.

from the book: Neither black/red/yellow nor woman but poet or writer. For many of us, the question of priorities remains a crucial issue. Being merely "a writer" without doubt ensures one a status of far greater weight than being "a woman of color who writes" ever does. Imputing race or sex to the creative act has long been a means by which the literary establishment cheapens and discredits the achievements of non-mainstream women writers. She who "happens to be" a (non-white) Third World member, a woman, and a writer is bound to go through the ordeal of exposing her work to the abuse of praises and criticisms that either ignore, dispense with, or overemphasize her racial and sexual attributes.