1. Lecture Code: PS_L.11
ENGL 559: Postcolonial Studies UNIT 2: Multi-Disciplinarity “Feminism and Womanism” by Nana Wilson-Tagoe
Min Pun, PhD, Associate Professor
Dept of English, PN Campus
Pokhara
25 November 2018

2. Introduction
In this chapter, Nana Wilson-Tagoe discusses the interrelations between postcolonialism, feminism and womanism. They are inseparable.
She argues that “all three discourses” are political discourses that challenge hegmonic and oppressive systems, and explore possibilities for change”.
Both feminism and womanism deal with the postcolonial issues like resistance, identity, subjectivity and difference.
Although feminism was originated in the West, the feminist questions are also the issues of postcolonialism, especially the agenda of all sorts of inequality.

3. Feminism in the 1960s and 1970s
In the 1960s and 1970s, feminist discourse dealt with the issues of social and personal power relations between the sexes that was called “sexual politics”.
So sexual politics became the central agenda for women around the world that helped rethink about the construction of knowledge.
For instance, gender became the decisive factor in all areas of knowledge, constructing masculanity and femininity in every day cultural, social and political interaction.
It was the global liberation movement against patriarchal bias in society such as silencing, marginalization and oppression of women.

4. Feminism in the 1980s
In the 1980s, feminist discourse focused not only gender differences, it also focused on the race and class, which was from African American feminism.
The feminist critic like bell hooks objected the idea of a common oppression of women that challenged the previous feminist movement.
hooks argues that there are diverse other sources of oppression of women such as class, race, religion and sexuality that determine the institutionalization of domination of women.
However, hooks’ idea was critiqued by Patricia Hill Collins who came with black feminism, dealing with black women’s oppression.

5. Contd…
In the 1980s, in response to the mainstream Eurocentric feminism, there was another feminist movement that dealt with the universal oppression of women and was appropriate for Third World women’s difference.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty pioneered this Third World feminism. She claimed that as black feminism raises a question related to postcolonial feminism, Third World feminism deals with the issues of colonial exploitation and oppression in the history of Western imperialism.

6. What Is Womanism?
Womanism is a term coined by Alice Walker in her book In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden: Womanist Prose (1983) to set aside the mainstream white feminists from black feminist women and primarily to resist anti-blackness within the feminist movement.
So the emergence of womanism is considered a counter-discourse to both mainstream feminism and black feminism.
Womanism critically identifies sexism in the African American community and racism in the feminist community.
In this sense, a womanish writer is neutral racially and sexually.

7. Contd…
Womanism recognizes the beauty and strength of embodied black womanhood, and seeks connections and solidarity with black men. So, it favours the wholeness and well-being of all of humanity, male and female.
Alice Walker defiines, “womanish” is a child who acts serious, courageous and grown-up rather than girlish.
For example, in Alice Walker’s short story “Coming Apart”, the protagonist’s wife comes to know that her husband reads pornographic magazines (with white women’s nude bodies) and derives sexual pleasure from them. The very next day, when her husband brings another pornographic magazine with black women’s nude bodies, she was not still happy. Now, both husband and wife realize that the magazine industry exploited the women’s body.

8. Conclusion
As postcolonialism began as a male-centred discourse on empire, dealing with colonial domination and exploitation, feminist movements opened up numerous perspectives on domination and power relations, especially making it possible to consider women’s own capacity to fight back to male domination.
In this way, the most significant impact that feminist movements have made on postcolonialism can be seen in the debates between feminism and black feminism, and between feminism and womanism.

9. Associate Professor, Dept of English Tribhuvan University
Min Pun, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept of English
Tribhuvan University
Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara
Website: