ABSTRACT
Audre Lorde and other lesbian authors of color, by drawing on and revisioning both non-Western and Eurocentric mythic material, are creating new patterns for women's narratives. Young lesbians are threatened as much or more than other young women; and young African-American lesbians are three times at risk: as young women, as lesbians, and as blacks. Images of women in European narrative are often incomplete, broken—mirroring the brokenness of women's experience and women's selves under patriarchy. While a number of lesbian narratives do follow the pattern of the male hero's quest narrative, the pattern of the male hero's journey often fails to account for crucial elements in women's coming-of-age narratives. The images of women in the Demeter/Kore myth describe parts of women's experience under patriarchy. The man's signifying certainly causes embarrassment and shame while diminishing the women's status.
