Black women writers in the Americas

This chapter addresses literary texts by Black women writers in the Americas, using Maria Lugones' concept of “coloniality of gender.” Although her thinking is based on Aníbal Quijano's concept of “coloniality of power,” the philosopher exposes the hegemonic meaning of gender that narrows the scope of his theory. Using the lens of intersectionality, Lugones makes visible the colonial instruments of subjection of both women and men of color and the reach and consequences of “coloniality” in the current world. For the purpose of this chapter, it is of foremost importance the way Lugones enquires into the construction of the indifference exhibited by males, who have themselves been targets of violent domination and exploitation, to the systematic violence inflicted upon women of color as these men themselves reproduce that violence as perpetrators. In the texts by M. Nourbese Philip, Ntozake Shange, Gayl Jones, Jamaica Kincaid and Edwidge Danticat, the chapter approaches the theme of violence perpetrated by Black males on the female Black body as well as the forms of resistance and agency that it ensues, to prove that “coloniality of gender” remains embedded in contemporary subjectivities and intersubjective relations. Yet, the critical stance and social solidarity found in these writers contest a hegemonic production of knowledge about populations that have been deprived of full human rights, making literature an instrument of decoloniality.