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135-475: As French novelist Honoré de Balzac stated, eroticism is dependent not just upon an individual's sexual morality , but also the culture and time in which an individual resides. Because the nature of what is erotic is fluid, early definitions of the term attempted to conceive eroticism as some form of sensual or romantic love or as the human sex drive ( libido ); for example, the Encyclopédie of 1755 states that

270-533: A classified advertisement in the Gazette de France , hoping that his anonymous critic would see it. Thus began a fifteen-year correspondence between Balzac and "the object of [his] sweetest dreams": Ewelina Hańska . Ewelina ( née Rzewuska) was married to a nobleman twenty years her senior, Marshal Wacław Hański , a wealthy Polish landowner living near Kyiv . It had been a marriage of convenience to preserve her family 's fortune. In Balzac Countess Ewelina found

405-491: A non-heterosexual perspective, viewing psychoanalytical and modernist views of eroticism as both archaic and heterosexist , written primarily by and for a "handful of elite, heterosexual, bourgeois men" who "mistook their own repressed sexual proclivities" as the norm. Theorists like Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , Gayle S. Rubin and Marilyn Frye all write extensively about eroticism from a heterosexual, lesbian and separatist point of view, respectively, seeing eroticism as both

540-458: A pallbearer and the eulogist at Balzac's funeral. Some modern researchers have attributed a factor in his death to excessive coffee consumption or a caffeine overdose (Balzac reportedly drank over 50 cups a day) but this has yet to be proved. Balzac is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. At his memorial service, Victor Hugo pronounced "Today we have people in black because of the death of

675-410: A poet , she is well known for technical mastery and emotional expression, as well as her poems that express anger and outrage at civil and social injustices she observed throughout her life. She was the recipient of national and international awards and the founding member of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press . As a spoken word artist, her delivery has been called powerful, melodic, and intense by

810-406: A type foundry . His inexperience and lack of capital caused his ruin in these trades. He gave the businesses to a friend (who made them successful) but carried the debts for many years. As of April 1828 Balzac owed 50,000 francs to his mother. Balzac never lost his penchant for une bonne spéculation . It resurfaced painfully later when—as a renowned and busy author—he traveled to Sardinia in

945-456: A "Horace de Saint-Aubin". These books were potboiler novels, designed to sell quickly and titillate audiences. In Saintsbury's view, "they are curiously, interestingly, almost enthrallingly bad". Saintsbury indicates that Robert Louis Stevenson tried to dissuade him from reading these early works of Balzac. American critic Samuel Rogers, however, notes that "without the training they gave Balzac, as he groped his way to his mature conception of

1080-545: A "biomythography", chronicles her childhood and adulthood. The narrative deals with the evolution of Lorde's sexuality and self-awareness. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), Lorde asserts the necessity of communicating the experience of marginalized groups to make their struggles visible in a repressive society. She emphasizes the need for different groups of people (particularly white women and African-American women) to find common ground in their lived experience, but also to face difference directly, and use it as

1215-568: A Black woman poet in the '60s, from jump. It meant being invisible. It meant being really invisible. It meant being doubly invisible as a Black feminist woman and it meant being triply invisible as a Black lesbian and feminist". In her essay "The Erotic as Power", written in 1978 and collected in Sister Outsider , Lorde theorizes the Erotic as a site of power for women only when they learn to release it from its suppression and embrace it, without

1350-526: A Polish aristocrat and his longtime love. He died in Paris six months later. Honoré de Balzac was born into a family which aspired to achieve respectability through its industry and efforts. His father, born Bernard-François Balssa, was one of eleven children from an artisan family in Tarn , a region in the south of France. In 1760 he set off for Paris with only a Louis coin in his pocket, intent on improving his social standing ; by 1776 he had become Secretary to

1485-464: A black flag, but her Blackness is there, implicit, in the bone". Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde openly confirms her homosexuality for

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1620-602: A bridge over the river Loire . In 1816 Balzac entered the Sorbonne , where he studied under three famous professors: François Guizot , who later became Prime Minister , was Professor of Modern History; Abel-François Villemain , a recent arrival from the Collège Charlemagne , lectured on French and classical literature; and, most influential of all, Victor Cousin 's courses on philosophy encouraged his students to think independently. Once his studies were completed, Balzac

1755-437: A closely plotted novella of only fifty pages. According to the literary critic Kornelije Kvas, "Balzac's use of the same characters (Rastignac, Vautrin) in different parts of The Human Comedy is a consequence of the realist striving for narrative economy". Balzac's work habits were legendary. He wrote from 1 A.M. to 8 A.M. every morning and sometimes even longer. Balzac could write very rapidly; some of his novels, written with

1890-460: A community of like-minded people. Some Afro-German women, such as Ika Hügel-Marshall , had never met another black person and the meetings offered opportunities to express thoughts and feelings. Body of a Poet : 1995 was written as a tribute biopic written to honor Lorde. The film centers on the efforts of a young group of lesbians of color. The film celebrates the life and work of Audre Lorde from her birth to her death. Her writings are based on

2025-442: A garret furnished in the most Spartan fashion, with a starvation allowance and an old woman to look after him", while the rest of the family moved to a house twenty miles (32 km) outside Paris. Balzac's first project was a libretto for a comic opera called Le Corsaire , based on Lord Byron 's The Corsair . Realizing he would have trouble finding a composer, however, he turned to other pursuits. In 1820 Balzac completed

2160-558: A good knowledge of hanging wallpaper. Balzac transferred this to his descriptions of the Pension Vauquer in Le Père Goriot , making the wallpaper speak of the identities of those living inside. Some critics consider Balzac's writing exemplary of naturalism —a more pessimistic and analytical form of realism, which seeks to explain human behavior as intrinsically linked with the environment. French novelist Émile Zola declared Balzac

2295-549: A great deal of the scholarship of white feminists served to augment the oppression of black women, a conviction that led to angry confrontation, most notably in a blunt open letter addressed to the fellow radical lesbian feminist Mary Daly , to which Lorde claimed she received no reply. Daly's reply letter to Lorde, dated four months later, was found in 2003 in Lorde's files after she died. This fervent disagreement with notable white feminists furthered Lorde's persona as an outsider: "In

2430-575: A group of black women activists in Berlin, Audre Lorde coined the term "Afro-German" in 1984 and, consequently, gave rise to the Black movement in Germany. During her many trips to Germany, Lorde became a mentor to a number of women, including May Ayim , Ika Hügel-Marshall , and Helga Emde. Instead of fighting systemic issues through violence, Lorde thought that language was a powerful form of resistance and encouraged

2565-510: A kindred spirit for her emotional and social desires, with the added benefit of feeling a connection to the glamorous capital of France. Their correspondence reveals an intriguing balance of passion, propriety and patience; Robb says it is "like an experimental novel in which the female protagonist is always trying to pull in extraneous realities but which the hero is determined to keep on course, whatever tricks he has to use". Marshal Hański died in 1841, and his widow and her admirer finally had

2700-439: A librarian, continued writing, and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village . She furthered her education at Columbia University , earning a master's degree in library science in 1961. During this period, she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York . In 1968 Lorde was writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Lorde's time at Tougaloo College, like her year at

2835-481: A massive temporal rift; the first part (of four) covers a span of six years, while the final two sections focus on just three days. Le Cousin Pons (1847) and La Cousine Bette (1848) tell the story of Les Parents Pauvres ( The Poor Relations ). The conniving and wrangling over wills and inheritances reflect the expertise gained by the author as a young law clerk. Balzac's health was deteriorating by this point, making

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2970-525: A movement that would allow black people to establish identities for themselves outside of stereotypes and discrimination. After a long history of systemic racism in Germany, Lorde introduced a new sense of empowerment for minorities. As seen in the film, she walks through the streets with pride despite stares and words of discouragement. Including moments like these in a documentary was important for people to see during that time. It inspired them to take charge of their identities and discover who they are outside of

3105-418: A near-fatal accident in 1832 (he slipped and cracked his head on the street), Balzac decided not to stand for election. 1831 saw the success of La Peau de chagrin ( The Wild Ass's Skin or The Magic Skin ), a fable-like tale about a despondent young man named Raphaël de Valentin who finds an animal skin which promises great power and wealth. He obtains these things, but loses the ability to manage them. In

3240-468: A part of a "continuum of women" and a "concert of voices" within herself. Her conception of her many layers of selfhood is replicated in the multi-genres of her work. Critic Carmen Birkle wrote: "Her multicultural self is thus reflected in a multicultural text, in multi-genres, in which the individual cultures are no longer separate and autonomous entities but melt into a larger whole without losing their individual importance." Her refusal to be placed in

3375-515: A particular category, whether social or literary, was characteristic of her determination to come across as an individual rather than a stereotype. Lorde considered herself a "lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" and used poetry to get this message across. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s – in Langston Hughes ' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA ; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she

3510-582: A poet. Her book of poems, Cables to Rage, came out of her time and experiences at Tougaloo. From 1972 to 1987, Lorde resided on Staten Island . During that time, in addition to writing and teaching she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press . In 1977, Lorde became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect

3645-463: A political force and cultural critique for marginalized groups, or as Mario Vargas Llosa summarized: "Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty". Audre Lorde , a lesbian Caribbean-American writer and outspoken feminist , called the erotic a source of power specifically identified with the female, often corrupted or distorted by oppression, since it poses

3780-411: A quill, were composed at a pace equal to thirty words per minute on a modern typewriter. His preferred method was to eat a light meal at five or six in the afternoon, then sleep until midnight. He then rose and wrote for many hours, fueled by innumerable cups of black coffee. He often worked for fifteen hours or more at a stretch; he claimed to have once worked for 48 hours with only three hours of rest in

3915-476: A result, he was frequently sent to the "alcove", a punishment cell reserved for disobedient students. (The janitor at the school, when asked later if he remembered Honoré, replied: "Remember M. Balzac? I should think I do! I had the honour of escorting him to the dungeon more than a hundred times!") Still, his time alone gave the boy ample freedom to read every book which came his way. Balzac worked these scenes from his boyhood—as he did many aspects of his life and

4050-529: A self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger." People are afraid of others' reactions for speaking, but mostly for demanding visibility, which is essential to live. Lorde adds, "We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid." "People are taught to respect their fear of speaking more than silence, but ultimately,

4185-536: A source of strength rather than alienation. She repeatedly emphasizes the need for community in the struggle to build a better world. How to constructively channel the anger and rage incited by oppression is another prominent theme throughout her works, and in this collection in particular. Her most famous essay, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", is included in Sister Outsider . Lorde questions

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4320-497: A stroke around New Year's 1953. In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico , a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal. During this time, she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as both a lesbian and a poet. On her return to New York, Lorde attended Hunter College , and graduated in the class of 1959. While there, she worked as

4455-452: A treatise on "the means of preventing thefts and murders, and of restoring the men who commit them to a useful role in society", in which he heaped disdain on prison as a form of crime prevention.) In 1814 the Balzac family moved to Paris, and Honoré was sent to private tutors and schools for the next two and a half years. This was an unhappy time in his life, during which he attempted suicide on

4590-419: A woman. She argued that, although differences in gender have received all the focus, it is essential that these other differences are also recognized and addressed. "Lorde," writes Carmen Birkle  [ de ] , "puts her emphasis on the authenticity of experience. She wants her difference acknowledged but not judged; she does not want to be subsumed into the one general category of 'woman. ' " This theory

4725-553: A writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience. Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly owing to his intense writing schedule. His relationship with his family was often strained by financial and personal drama, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, Balzac married Ewelina Hańska ( née   Contessa Rzewuska ),

4860-476: A young age. She spent very little time with her father and mother, who were both busy maintaining their real estate business in the tumultuous economy after the Great Depression. When she did see them, they were often cold or emotionally distant. In particular, Lorde's relationship with her mother, who was deeply suspicious of people with darker skin than hers (which Lorde had) and the outside world in general,

4995-487: A young poet trying to make a name for himself, who becomes trapped in the morass of society's darkest contradictions. Lucien's journalistic work is informed by Balzac's own failed ventures in the field. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes ( The Harlot High and Low , 1847) continues Lucien's story. He is trapped by the Abbé Herrera ( Vautrin ) in a convoluted and disastrous plan to regain social status. The book undergoes

5130-425: Is abuse. They should do it as a method to connect everyone in their differences and similarities. Utilizing the erotic as power allows women to use their knowledge and power to face the issues of racism, patriarchy, and our anti-erotic society. She claims that the erotic can be used as a source of power for women to live with passion in all areas of their life. With the erotic guiding life, Lorde encourages women to use

5265-616: Is commemorated on 16 May, four days before Balzac's birthday) was actually the second child born to the Balzacs; exactly one year earlier, Louis-Daniel had been born, but he lived for only a month. Honoré's sisters Laure and Laurence were born in 1800 and 1802, and his younger brother Henry-François in 1807. As an infant Balzac was sent to a wet nurse ; the following year he was joined by his sister Laure and they spent four years away from home. (Although Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's influential book Émile convinced many mothers of

5400-510: Is reflective of the author's own life, a possible attempt to stabilize it through fiction. "The vanishing man", wrote Sir Victor Pritchett, "who must be pursued from the rue Cassini to ...  Versailles , Ville d'Avray , Italy, and Vienna can construct a settled dwelling only in his work". Balzac's extensive use of detail, especially the detail of objects, to illustrate the lives of his characters made him an early pioneer of literary realism . While he admired and drew inspiration from

5535-399: Is the essay, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action". Lorde discusses the importance of speaking, even when afraid, because otherwise silence immobilizes and chokes us. Many people fear to speak the truth because of the real risks of retaliation, but Lorde warns, "Your silence does not protect you." Lorde emphasizes that "the transformation of silence into language and action is

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5670-401: Is today known as intersectionality . While acknowledging that the differences between women are wide and varied, most of Lorde's works are concerned with two subsets that concerned her primarily – race and sexuality. In Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson 's documentary A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde , Lorde says, "Let me tell you first about what it was like being

5805-458: Is transferred to a female vanguard capable equally of force and fertility." Lorde's poetry became more open and personal as she grew older and became more confident in her sexuality. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches , Lorde states, "Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought... As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for

5940-457: The Catholic Church . In the preface to La Comédie humaine he wrote: "Christianity, above all, Catholicism, being ... a complete system for the repression of the depraved tendencies of man, is the most powerful element of social order". In the late 1820s Balzac dabbled in several business ventures, a penchant his sister blamed on the temptation of an unknown neighbour. His first enterprise

6075-575: The King's Council and a Freemason (he had also changed his name to the more noble sounding "Balzac", his son later adding—without official recognition—the nobiliary particle : " de "). After the Reign of Terror (1793–94), François Balzac was despatched to Tours to coordinate supplies for the Army . Balzac's mother, born Anne-Charlotte-Laure Sallambier, came from a family of haberdashers in Paris. Her family's wealth

6210-473: The National University of Mexico , was a formative experience for her as an artist. She led workshops with her young, black undergraduate students, many of whom were eager to discuss the civil rights issues of that time. Through her interactions with her students, she reaffirmed her desire not only to live out her "crazy and queer" identity, but also to devote attention to the formal aspects of her craft as

6345-630: The Poetry Foundation . Her poems and prose largely deal with issues related to civil rights, feminism, lesbianism, illness, disability, and the exploration of Black female identity. Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934, in New York City, New York, to Caribbean immigrants Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde. Her father, Frederick Byron Lorde (Byron), was born on April 20, 1898 in Barbados . Her mother, Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde,

6480-501: The Romantic style of Scottish novelist Walter Scott, Balzac sought to depict human existence through the use of particulars. In the preface to the first edition of Scènes de la Vie privée , he wrote: "the author firmly believes that details alone will henceforth determine the merit of works". Plentiful descriptions of décor, clothing, and possessions help breathe life into the characters. For example, Balzac's friend Henri de Latouche had

6615-420: The chateau is a museum dedicated to the author's life. In 1833, as he revealed in a letter to his sister, Balzac entered into an illicit affair with fellow writer Maria Du Fresnay, who was then aged 24. Her marriage to a considerably older man (Charles du Fresnay, Mayor of Sartrouville ) had been a failure from the outset. In this letter, Balzac also reveals that the young woman had just come to tell him she

6750-544: The "theory of difference", the idea that the binary opposition between men and women is overly simplistic; although feminists have found it necessary to present the illusion of a solid, unified whole, the category of women itself is full of subdivisions. Lorde identified issues of race, class, age and ageism, sex and sexuality and, later in her life, chronic illness and disability; the latter becoming more prominent in her later years as she lived with cancer. She wrote of all of these factors as fundamental to her experience of being

6885-580: The Afro-German movement was the focus of the 2012 documentary by Dagmar Schultz. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984–1992 was accepted by the Berlin Film Festival , Berlinale, and had its World Premiere at the 62nd Annual Festival in 2012. The film has gone on to film festivals around the world, and continued to be viewed at festivals until 2018. The documentary has received seven awards, including Winner of

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7020-420: The Afro-German movement. What began as a few friends meeting in a friend's home to get to know other black people, turned into what is now known as the Afro-German movement. Lorde inspired black women to refute the designation of " Mulatto ", a label which was imposed on them, and switch to the newly coined, self-given " Afro-German ", a term that conveyed a sense of pride. Lorde inspired Afro-German women to create

7155-552: The Balzac Monument has stood since 1939 nearby the intersection of Boulevard Raspail and Boulevard Montparnasse at Place Pablo-Picasso. Rodin featured Balzac in several of his smaller sculptures as well. The Comédie humaine remained unfinished at the time of his death—Balzac had plans to include numerous other books, most of which he never started. He frequently flitted between works in progress . "Finished articles" were frequently revised between editions. This piecemeal style

7290-774: The Best Documentary Audience Award 2014 at the 15th Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival , the Gold Award for Best Documentary at the International Film Festival for Women, Social Issues, and Zero Discrimination , and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Barcelona International LGBT Film Festival . Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years revealed the previous lack of recognition that Lorde received for her contributions towards

7425-691: The Cuban revolution had truly changed racism and the status of lesbians and gays there. In 1984, Lorde started a visiting professorship in West Berlin at the Free University of Berlin . She was invited by FU lecturer Dagmar Schultz who had met her at the UN "World Women's Conference" in Copenhagen in 1980. During her time in Germany, Lorde became an influential part of the then-nascent Afro-German movement. Together with

7560-416: The Master's House", Lorde attacked what she believed was underlying racism within feminism, describing it as unrecognized dependence on the patriarchy . She argued that, by denying difference in the category of women, white feminists merely furthered old systems of oppression and that, in so doing, they were preventing any real, lasting change. Her argument aligned white feminists who did not recognize race as

7695-492: The United States, Lorde famously said: Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference -- those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older -- know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle

7830-427: The author to write short stories, which Le Poitevin would then sell to publishers. Balzac quickly turned to longer works, and by 1826 he had written nine novels, all published under pseudonyms and often produced in collaboration with other writers. For example, the scandalous novel Vicaire des Ardennes (1822)—banned for its depiction of nearly-incestuous relations and, more egregiously, of a married priest—attributed to

7965-506: The bourgeois title character) are dynamic and complex. It is followed by La Duchesse de Langeais , arguably the most sublime of his novels. Le Père Goriot ( Old Father Goriot , 1835) was his next success, in which Balzac transposes the story of King Lear to 1820s Paris in order to rage at a society bereft of all love save the love of money. The centrality of a father in this novel matches Balzac's own position—not only as mentor to his troubled young secretary, Jules Sandeau, but also

8100-410: The ceremony took a toll on both husband and wife: her feet were too swollen to walk, and he endured severe heart trouble. Although he married late in life, Balzac had already written two treatises on marriage: Physiologie du Mariage and Scènes de la Vie Conjugale . These works lacked firsthand knowledge; Saintsbury points out that "cœlebs cannot talk of [marriage] with much authority". In late April

8235-451: The challenge of change. "For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives". In "The Uses of the Erotic" within Sister Outsider , she discusses how the erotic comes from the sharing of joy, "whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual" and provides the basis on which understanding provides a foundation for acknowledging difference. Lorde suggests that if we suppress

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8370-849: The chance to pursue their affections. A rival of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt , Balzac visited Countess Hańska in Saint Petersburg in 1843 and won her heart. After a series of financial setbacks, health problems and objections from Tsar Nicholas I , the couple finally received permission to wed. On 14 March 1850, with Balzac's health in serious decline, they travelled by carriage from her family seat at Verhivnya Park in Volhynia to St. Barbara's Catholic Church in Berdychiv (Russia's former banking city in present-day Ukraine), where they were married by Abbot Ożarowski. The ten-hour journey to and from

8505-413: The city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola , Charles Dickens , Marcel Proust , Gustave Flaubert , and Henry James , and filmmakers François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette . Many of Balzac's works have been made into films and continue to inspire other writers. James called him "really

8640-560: The collapse of his businesses, Balzac traveled to Brittany and stayed with the De Pommereul family outside Fougères . There he drew inspiration for Les Chouans (1829), a tale of love gone wrong amid the Chouan royalist forces. Although he was a supporter of the Crown , Balzac paints the revolutionaries in a sympathetic light—even though they are the center of the book's most brutal scenes. This

8775-460: The completion of this pair of books a significant accomplishment. Many of his novels were initially serialized, like those of Dickens . Their length was not predetermined. Illusions Perdues extends to a thousand pages after starting inauspiciously in a small-town print shop, whereas La Fille aux yeux d'or ( The Girl with the Golden Eyes , 1835) opens with a broad panorama of Paris but becomes

8910-561: The decision was also significant; as Robb explained: "The disappearance of the father coincides with the adoption of the nobiliary particle. A symbolic inheritance." Just as his father had worked his way up from poverty into respectable society, Balzac considered toil and effort his real mark of nobility. When the July Revolution overthrew Charles X in 1830, Balzac declared himself a Legitimist , supporting King Charles' Royal House of Bourbon , but not without qualifications. He felt that

9045-420: The distinguished Thomas Hunter chair. As a queer Black woman, she was an outsider in a white-male dominated field and her experiences in this environment deeply influenced her work. New fields such as African American studies and women's studies advanced the topics that scholars were addressing and garnered attention to groups that had previously been rarely discussed. With this newfound academic environment, Lorde

9180-420: The end, his health fails and he is consumed by his own confusion. Balzac meant the story to bear witness to the treacherous turns of life, its "serpentine motion". In 1833 Balzac released Eugénie Grandet , his first best-seller. The tale of a young lady who inherits her father's miserliness, it also became the most critically acclaimed book of his career. The writing is simple, yet the individuals (especially

9315-404: The erotic "is an epithet which is applied to everything with a connection to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize...a dissoluteness, an excess". Libertine literature such as those by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester evoked eroticism to the readers. Because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer's culture and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines

9450-485: The erotic and the pornographic": "the history of the separation of pornography from eroticism... remains to be written". Audre Lorde recognises eroticism and pornography as “two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual”, defining the erotic as “a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.” In her 1978 essay, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power , Lorde identifies

9585-433: The erotic as a compass to identify what holds value in women's lives. Furthermore, Lorde criticizes the idea of compulsory heterosexuality and the idea that women's happiness will come through marriage, god, or religion. The idea of the erotic will empower women to not settle for what is conventionally expected or safe leaning into the idea of resisting patriarchal values put in place over women and their sexuality. Lorde sees

9720-409: The erotic as a source of creative power that is deeply rooted in a spiritual plane of unrecognised or unexpressed feeling and sensation. Influenced by Sigmund Freud , psychotherapists have turned to Greek philosophy for an understanding of eros' heightened aesthetic . For Plato , Eros takes an almost transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with

9855-449: The erotic as that which concerned love...eroticism was the intrusion into the public sphere of something that was at base private". This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher Georges Bataille , who argued that eroticism performs a function of dissolving boundaries between human subjectivity and humanity, a transgression that dissolves

9990-514: The erotic rather than recognize its presence, it takes on a different form. Rather than enjoying and sharing with one another, it becomes objectifying, which she says translates into abuse as we attempt to hide and suppress our experiences. Honor%C3%A9 de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( / ˈ b æ l z æ k / BAL -zak , more commonly US : / ˈ b ɔː l -/ BAWL - ; French: [ɔnɔʁe d(ə) balzak] ; born Honoré Balzac ; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850)

10125-401: The erotic, critics have often confused eroticism with pornography , with anti-pornography activist Andrea Dworkin saying, "Erotica is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer." This confusion, as Lynn Hunt writes, "demonstrate[s] the difficulty of drawing... a clear generic demarcation between

10260-421: The extent that, "If asked how she was feeling, Audre would reply by reciting a poem." Around the age of twelve, she began writing her own poetry and connecting with others at her school who were considered "outcasts", as she felt she was. Raised Catholic , Lorde attended parochial schools before moving on to Hunter College High School , a secondary school for intellectually gifted students. Poet Diane di Prima

10395-468: The fact that he had fathered a child, Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay , with his otherwise-married lover, Maria Du Fresnay , who had been his source of inspiration for Eugénie Grandet . In 1836 Balzac took the helm of the Chronique de Paris , a weekly magazine of society and politics. He tried to enforce strict impartiality in its pages and a reasoned assessment of various ideologies. As Rogers notes, "Balzac

10530-458: The father of the naturalist novel . Zola indicated that whilst the Romantics saw the world through a colored lens, the naturalist sees through a clear glass—precisely the sort of effect Balzac attempted to achieve in his works. Audre Lorde Audre Lorde ( / ˈ ɔː d r i ˈ l ɔːr d / AW -dree LORD ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde ; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992)

10665-471: The father of us all." An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office , but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. Before and during his career as

10800-491: The first time in her writing: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1974, From a Land Where Other People Live ( Broadside Press ) shows Lorde's personal struggles with identity and anger at social injustice. The volume deals with themes of anger, loneliness, and injustice, as well as what it means to be a black woman, mother, friend, and lover. 1974 saw

10935-439: The five-act verse tragedy Cromwell . Although it pales by comparison with his later works, some critics consider it a good-quality text. When he finished, Balzac went to Villeparisis and read the entire work to his family; they were unimpressed. He followed this effort by starting (but never finishing) three novels: Sténie , Falthurne , and Corsino . In 1821 Balzac met the enterprising Auguste Le Poitevin , who convinced

11070-465: The grindstone, doing the same thing over and over again.... I am hungry and nothing is offered to appease my appetite". He announced his intention to become a writer. The loss of this opportunity caused serious discord in the Balzac household, although Honoré was not turned away entirely. Instead, in April 1819 he was allowed to live in the French capital—as English critic George Saintsbury describes it—"in

11205-436: The headmaster to contact his family with news of a "sort of a coma". When he returned home, his grandmother said: " Voilà donc comme le collège nous renvoie les jolis que nous lui envoyons! " ("Look how the academy returns the pretty ones we send them!") Balzac himself attributed his condition to "intellectual congestion", but his extended confinement in the "alcove" was surely a factor. (Meanwhile, his father had been writing

11340-499: The hideous wrangling of heirs over corpses not yet cold, the human heart grappling with the Penal Code". In 1819 Passez offered to make Balzac his successor, but his apprentice had had enough of the Law. He despaired of being "a clerk, a machine, a riding-school hack, eating and drinking and sleeping at fixed hours. I should be like everyone else. And that's what they call living, that life at

11475-551: The hopes of reprocessing the slag from the Roman mines there. Near the end of his life Balzac was captivated by the idea of cutting 20,000 acres (81 km ) of oak wood in Ukraine and transporting it for sale in France. After writing several novels, in 1832 Balzac conceived the idea for an enormous series of books that would paint a panoramic portrait of "all aspects of society". The moment

11610-493: The idea came to him, Balzac raced to his sister's apartment and proclaimed: "I am about to become a genius!" Although he originally called it Etudes des Mœurs (literally 'Studies of manners', or 'The Ways of the World') it eventually became known as La Comédie humaine , and he included in it all the fiction that he had published in his lifetime under his own name. This was to be Balzac's life work and his greatest achievement. After

11745-402: The inherent problems within society by saying, "racism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance. Ageism. Heterosexism. Elitism. Classism." Lorde finds herself among some of these "deviant" groups in society, which set the tone for

11880-401: The institutional milieu of black feminist and black lesbian feminist scholars ... and within the context of conferences sponsored by white feminist academics, Lorde stood out as an angry, accusatory, isolated black feminist lesbian voice". The criticism was not one-sided: many white feminists were angered by Lorde's brand of feminism. In her 1984 essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle

12015-443: The labels put on them by society. The film also educates people on the history of racism in Germany. This enables viewers to understand how Germany reached this point in history and how the society developed. Through her promotion of the study of history and her example of taking her experiences in her stride, she influenced people of many different backgrounds. The film documents Lorde's efforts to empower and encourage women to start

12150-568: The large publishing house behind it – Norton – helped introduce her to a wider audience. The volume includes poems from both The First Cities and Cables to Rage , and it unites many of the themes Lorde would become known for throughout her career: her rage at racial injustice, her celebration of her black identity, and her call for an intersectional consideration of women's experiences. Lorde followed Coal up with Between Our Selves (also in 1976) and Hanging Fire (1978). In Lorde's volume The Black Unicorn (1978), she describes her identity within

12285-668: The late 1980s, she also helped establish Sisterhood in Support of Sisters (SISA) in South Africa to benefit black women who were affected by apartheid and other forms of injustice. In 1985, Audre Lorde was a part of a delegation of black women writers who had been invited to Cuba . The trip was sponsored by The Black Scholar and the Union of Cuban Writers. She embraced the shared sisterhood as black women writers. They visited Cuban poets Nancy Morejon and Nicolas Guillen . They discussed whether

12420-547: The lives of those around him—into La Comédie humaine . His time at Vendôme is reflected in Louis Lambert , his 1832 novel about a young boy studying at an Oratorian grammar school at Vendôme. The narrator says : "He devoured books of every kind, feeding indiscriminately on religious works, history and literature, philosophy and physics. He had told me that he found indescribable delight in reading dictionaries for lack of other books." Balzac often fell ill, finally causing

12555-516: The man of talent; a nation in mourning for a man of genius". The funeral was attended by "almost every writer in Paris", including Frédérick Lemaître , Gustave Courbet , Dumas père and Dumas fils , as well as representatives of the Légion d'honneur and other dignitaries. Later, a statue (called the Monument to Balzac ) was created by the celebrated French sculptor Auguste Rodin . Cast in bronze,

12690-497: The master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support. Lorde had several films that highlighted her journey as an activist in the 1980s and 1990s. The Berlin Years: 1984–1992 documented Lorde's time in Germany as she led Afro-Germans in

12825-492: The middle. Balzac revised obsessively, covering printer's proofs with changes and additions to be reset. He sometimes repeated this process during the publication of a book, causing significant expense both for himself and the publisher. As a result, the finished product quite often was different from the original text. Although some of his books never reached completion, some—such as Les employés ( The Government Clerks , 1841)—are nonetheless noted by critics. Although Balzac

12960-733: The most radical and daring ideas." Sister Outsider also elaborates Lorde's challenge to European-American traditions. The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988) both use non-fiction prose, including essays and journal entries, to bear witness to, explore, and reflect on Lorde's diagnosis, treatment, recovery from breast cancer, and ultimately fatal recurrence with liver metastases. In both works, Lorde deals with Western notions of illness, disability, treatment, cancer and sexuality, and physical beauty and prosthesis , as well as themes of death, fear of mortality, survival, emotional healing, and inner power. Lorde's deeply personal book Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), subtitled

13095-444: The mythos of African female deities of creation, fertility, and warrior strength. This reclamation of African female identity both builds and challenges existing Black Arts ideas about pan-Africanism . While writers like Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed utilized African cosmology in a way that "furnished a repertoire of bold male gods capable of forging and defending an aboriginal Black universe," in Lorde's writing "that warrior ethos

13230-619: The new July Monarchy (which claimed widespread popular support) was disorganized and unprincipled, in need of a mediator to keep the political peace between the King and insurgent forces. He called for "a young and vigorous man who belongs neither to the Directoire nor to the Empire, but who is 1830 incarnate...." He planned to be such a candidate , appealing especially to the higher classes in Chinon . But after

13365-420: The new free movement of East Germans, she also more broadly and fundamentally decries the triumph of capitalist democratic freedoms and Western influences, demonstrating her deep skepticism about, and resistance to, the " Peaceful Revolution " that would lead to the transition of Communist East Germany to parliamentary liberal democracy, market capitalism, and ultimately German reunification . Lorde's impact on

13500-550: The newly-weds set off for Paris. His health deteriorated on the way, and Ewelina wrote to her daughter about Balzac being "in a state of extreme weakness" and "sweating profusely". They arrived in the French capital on 20 May, his fifty-first birthday. Five months after his wedding, on Sunday, 18 August 1850, Balzac died of gangrene associated with congestive heart failure , in the presence of his mother—his wife, Eve de Balzac (formerly Countess Hańska) had gone to bed. He had been visited that day by Victor Hugo, who later served as

13635-567: The novel, and without the habit he formed as a young man of writing under pressure, one can hardly imagine his producing La Comédie humaine ". Biographer Graham Robb suggests that as he discovered the Novel, Balzac discovered himself. During this time Balzac wrote two pamphlets in support of primogeniture and the Society of Jesus . The latter, regarding the Jesuits , illustrated his lifelong admiration for

13770-460: The object/other: "the true order of going...to the things of love, is to use the beauties of earth as steps...to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair actions, and from fair actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty". Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to the Age of Enlightenment , when "in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined

13905-450: The official records of homosexuals once maintained by the Paris police were finally released, his name was found listed. In February 1832 Balzac received an intriguing letter from Odessa —with no return address and signed simply " L'Étrangère " ("The Foreigner")—expressing sadness at the cynicism and atheism in La Peau de Chagrin and its negative portrayal of women. His response was to place

14040-447: The oppression of others because expecting a marginalized group to educate the oppressors is the continuation of racist, patriarchal thought. She explains that this is a major tool utilized by oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns. She concludes that to bring about real change, we cannot work within the racist, patriarchal framework because change brought about in that will not remain. Also in Sister Outsider

14175-539: The public with forms of women-based media. Lorde taught in the Education Department at Lehman College from 1969 to 1970, then as a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (part of the City University of New York , CUNY) from 1970 to 1981. There, she fought for the creation of a black studies department. In 1981, she went on to teach at her alma mater, Hunter College (also CUNY), as

14310-399: The rational world but is always temporary, as well as that, "Desire in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the taboo. It presupposes man in conflict with himself". For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, "Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest...eroticism is assenting to life even in death". Queer theory and LGBTQ studies consider the concept from

14445-487: The release of New York Head Shop and Museum , which gives a picture of Lorde's New York through the lenses of both the civil rights movement and her own restricted childhood: stricken with poverty and neglect and, in Lorde's opinion, in need of political action. Despite the success of these volumes, it was the release of Coal in 1976 that established Lorde as an influential voice in the Black Arts Movement , and

14580-515: The scope and ability for change to be instigated when examining problems through a racist, patriarchal lens. She insists that women see differences between other women not as something to be tolerated, but something that is necessary to generate power and to actively "be" in the world. This will create a community that embraces differences, which will ultimately lead to liberation. Lorde elucidates, "Divide and conquer, in our world, must become define and empower." Also, people must educate themselves about

14715-450: The second he would not have been at home there.... [H]e felt it was his business not to frequent society but to create it". However, he often spent long periods at the Château de Saché , near Tours , the home of his friend Jean de Margonne, his mother's lover and father to her youngest child. Many of Balzac's tormented characters were conceived in the chateau's small second-floor bedroom. Today

14850-433: The sexualized meaning it often holds in mainstream society. She proposes that the Erotic needs to be explored and experienced wholeheartedly, because it exists not only in reference to sexuality and the sexual, but also as a feeling of enjoyment, love, and thrill that is felt towards any task or experience that satisfies women in their lives, be it reading a book or loving one's job. She dismisses "the false belief that only by

14985-532: The silence will choke us anyway, so we might as well speak the truth." Lorde writes that we can learn to speak even when we are afraid. In Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference , Lorde emphasizes the importance of educating others. However, she stresses that in order to educate others, one must first be educated. Empowering people who are doing the work does not mean using privilege to overstep and overpower such groups; but rather, privilege must be used to hold door open for other allies. Lorde describes

15120-414: The status quo and what "not to be" in society. Lorde argues that women feel pressure to conform to their "oneness" before recognizing the separation among them due to their "manyness", or aspects of their identity. She stresses that this behavior is exactly what "explains feminists' inability to forge the kind of alliances necessary to create a better world." In relation to non- intersectional feminism in

15255-436: The suppression of the erotic or conformity to heterosexual norms as a form of control over women. In order to assume control over oneself, she urges women to reclaim the erotic and assert control. She erases the erotic differences that lie between varying sexualities in order to promote these desires as a creative force for revolutionary change. Lorde set out to confront issues of racism in feminist thought. She maintained that

15390-442: The suppression of the erotic within our lives and consciousness can women be truly strong. But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power." She explains how patriarchal society has misnamed it and used it against women, causing women to fear it. Women also fear it because the erotic is powerful and a deep feeling. Women must share each other's power rather than use it without consent, which

15525-499: The theories of intersectionality. Lorde focused her discussion of difference not only on differences between groups of women but between conflicting differences within the individual. "I am defined as other in every group I'm part of," she declared. Audre Lorde states that "the outsider, both strength and weakness. Yet without community there is certainly no liberation, no future, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between me and my oppression". She described herself both as

15660-406: The time to nurse their own children, sending babies to wet nurses was still common among the middle and upper classes.) When the Balzac children returned home, they were kept at a frosty distance from their parents, which affected the author-to-be significantly. His 1835 novel Le Lys dans la vallée features a cruel governess named Miss Caroline, modeled after his own caregiver. At age ten Balzac

15795-546: The women of Germany to speak up instead of fight back. Her impact on Germany reached more than just Afro-German women; Lorde helped increase awareness of intersectionality across racial and ethnic lines. In December 1989, the month after the fall of the Berlin Wall , Lorde wrote her poem "East Berlin 1989" conveying her views of this historic event. In the poem, while Lorde voices her alarm about increased violent racism against Afro-Germans and other Black people in Berlin due to

15930-433: Was "by turns a hermit and a vagrant", he managed to stay in tune with the social spheres which nourished his writing. He was friends with Théophile Gautier and Pierre-Marie-Charles de Bernard du Grail de la Villette , and he was acquainted with Victor Hugo . Nevertheless, he did not spend as much time in salons and clubs of Paris like many of his characters. "In the first place he was too busy", explains Saintsbury, "in

16065-415: Was 30 years old at the time). This was the first work signed "Honoré de Balzac". He followed his father in the surname Balzac but added the aristocratic-sounding nobiliary particle to help him fit into respected society, a choice based on skill rather than by right. "The aristocracy and authority of talent are more substantial than the aristocracy of names and material power", he wrote in 1830. The timing of

16200-578: Was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine , which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus . Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature . He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well;

16335-701: Was a classmate and friend. She graduated in 1951. While attending Hunter, Lorde published her first poem in Seventeen magazine after her school's literary journal rejected it for being inappropriate. Also in high school, Lorde participated in poetry workshops sponsored by the Harlem Writers Guild , but noted that she always felt like somewhat of an outcast from the Guild. She felt she was not accepted because she "was both crazy and queer but [they thought] I would grow out of it all." Zami places her father's death from

16470-451: Was a considerable factor in the match: she was eighteen at the time of the wedding, and François Balzac fifty. As the author and literary critic Sir Victor Pritchett explained, "She was certainly drily aware that she had been given to an old husband as a reward for his professional services to a friend of her family and that the capital was on her side. She was not in love with her husband". Honoré (named after Saint-Honoré of Amiens , who

16605-431: Was also politically active in civil rights , anti-war , and feminist movements . In 1968, Lorde published The First Cities , her first volume of poems. It was edited by Diane di Prima , a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. The First Cities has been described as a "quiet, introspective book", and Dudley Randall , a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave

16740-436: Was an American writer, professor , philosopher , intersectional feminist , poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" who dedicated her life and talents to confronting different forms of injustice, as she believed there could be "no hierarchy of oppressions" among "those who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children." As

16875-585: Was born in 1902 on the island Carriacou in Grenada . Lorde's mother was of mixed ancestry but passed as Spanish , which was a source of pride for her family. Lorde's father was darker than the Belmar family liked, and they only allowed the couple to marry because of Byron's charm, ambition, and persistence. After their immigration, the new family settled in Harlem , a diverse neighborhood in upper Manhattan, New York . Lorde

17010-457: Was characterized by "tough love" and strict adherence to family rules. Lorde's difficult relationship with her mother figured prominently in her later poems, such as Coal ' s "Story Books on a Kitchen Table." As a child, Lorde struggled with communication, and came to appreciate the power of poetry as a form of expression. She even described herself as thinking in poetry. She memorized a great deal of poetry, and would use it to communicate, to

17145-454: Was in eighth grade. Born as Audrey Geraldine Lorde, she chose to drop the "y" from her first name while still a child, explaining in Zami: A New Spelling of My Name that she was more interested in the artistic symmetry of the "e"-endings in the two side-by-side names "Audre Lorde" than in spelling her name the way her parents had intended. Lorde's relationship with her parents was difficult from

17280-503: Was in publishing which turned out cheap one-volume editions of French classics including the works of Molière . This business failed miserably, with many of the books "sold as waste paper". Balzac had better luck publishing the Memoirs of the Duchess of Abrantès , with whom he also had a love affair. Balzac borrowed money from his family and friends and tried to build a printing business, then

17415-575: Was inspired to not only write poetry but also essays and articles about queer, feminist, and African American studies. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga , she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press , the first U.S. publisher for women of color. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992. In 1981, Lorde was among the founders of the Women's Coalition of St. Croix, an organization dedicated to assisting women who have survived sexual abuse and intimate partner violence . In

17550-599: Was interested in any social, political, or economic theory, whether from the right or the left." The magazine failed, but in July 1840 he founded another publication, the Revue Parisienne . It produced three issues. These dismal business efforts—and his misadventures in Sardinia—provided an appropriate milieu in which to set the two-volume Illusions perdues ( Lost Illusions , 1843). The novel concerns Lucien de Rubempré,

17685-442: Was persuaded by his father to follow him into the Law; after a stint in the office of the avoué Jean-Baptiste Guillonnet-Merville for three years he trained and worked at the office of the notary Édouard-Victor Passez, a family friend. During this time Balzac began to understand the vagaries of human nature. In his 1840 novel Le Notaire , he wrote that a young person in the legal profession sees "the oily wheels of every fortune,

17820-448: Was pregnant with his child. In 1834, 8 months after the event, Maria Du Fresnay's daughter by Balzac, Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay, was born. This revelation from French journalist Roger Pierrot in 1955 confirmed what was already suspected by several historians: the dedicatee of the novel Eugénie Grandet , a certain "Maria", turns out to be Maria Du Fresnay herself. Balzac had also long been suspected of being attracted to males as well. When

17955-513: Was sent to the Oratorian grammar school in Vendôme , where he studied for seven years. His father, seeking to instill the same hardscrabble work ethic which had gained him the esteem of society, intentionally gave little spending money to the boy. This made him the object of ridicule among his much wealthier schoolmates. Balzac had difficulty adapting to the rote style of learning at the school. As

18090-496: Was the first book Balzac released under his own name, and it gave him what one critic called "passage into the Promised Land". It established him as an author of note (even if its historical fiction-genre imitates that of Sir Walter Scott ) and provided him with a name outside his past pseudonyms. Soon afterwards, around the time of his father's death, Balzac wrote El Verdugo —about a 30-year-old man who kills his father (Balzac

18225-458: Was the youngest of three daughters, her older sisters named Phyllis and Helen Lorde. Lorde was nearsighted to the point of being legally blind , so she grew up listening her mother's stories about the West Indies rather than reading them. At the age of four, she learned to talk while she learned to read, and her mother taught her to write at around the same time. She wrote her first poem when she

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