Intersectionality in Ann Petry's novels: The Street and I, Tituba The Black Witch of Salem in the context of black feminist theory

The intersection of social categories such as race, class, and gender, and all related structures such as laws and policies that create temporary experiences of inequality for some characters and permanent experiences of inequality for others can be reflected as marginalization, disadvantage, or advantage for individuals. However, the purpose of this study is not to create a social hierarchical structure of who is more or less advantaged, but to draw attention to the unique black women's experiences created by the intersection of these social categories. Therefore, in the context of Black Feminist Theory, and following Kimberle Crenshaw's theory of Intersectionality as an integral part of this theory, the novels I Tituba, The Black Witch of Salem, and The Street by Ann Petry, who has been referred to by some as 'the writer we have been waiting for' but whose work as a black woman writer has often been ignored, will be analyzed. The intersecting experiences of black female protagonists will be illuminated comperatively through Petry's works, which reflect two quite different periods of American history, one in the 16th century and the other in the 20th century, and present examples from both rural and urban life, one in Salem and the other in Harlem. The discourses and practices related to race, class, and gender, to which black women are most exposed, will be interpreted with an intersectional rather than cumulative perspective. In this context, the effects of intersectionality on the lives of the female protagonists and general human relations will be analyzed by examining how ideological systems of oppression are articulated and how they create a cycle. By analyzing in detail the attitudes of white men, white women, and black men to which both Petry, as an early black feminist, and Black Feminist Theory reacted, the social position and change of black women in medieval and modern times will be observed. By focusing on the reactions and struggles of black heroines to intersectional oppression, Petry's social criticisms will be clarified.