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Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”

Brooks’s poem addresses the theme of premature death among rebellious adolescents, and particularly among Black youths. In this regard, the collective speakers of her poem offer a useful comparison with the speaker of “Hanging Fire.”

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Morrison’s landmark 1970 novel explores the particular forms of social expectation and oppression that converge on Black girls. For this reason alone, it’s a key companion piece for Lorde’s poem, which was published just a few years after The Bluest Eye came out.

Toni Morrison, Sula

Morrison continued her exploration of Black girlhood in her 1973 novel, Sula, which offers another important point of comparison to Lorde’s poem.

Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Woolf’s landmark 1931 novel is notable for its sustained use of stream-of-consciousness technique. In this regard, The Waves provides one important predecessor (among many) to Lorde’s depiction of the nonlinear flow of the speaker’s thoughts in “Hanging Fire.”

Previous section Historical & Literary Context

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