Double Consciousness Du Bois vs. Anzaldua

[johnsonr]

Du Bois seemed to have considered his form of double consciousness an epistemological advantage. However, Anzaldua's writing portrays double consciousness as more of a disadvantage. Where do the writers differ in their interpretation of double consciousness? What aspects of their lives expressed in their writing are responsible for this difference in interpretation?

[xiey]

I actually do not think Anzaldua have portrayed the double consciousness as a disadvantage. Compared with Du Bois, she did spend a lot of time on describing how she has struggled with this double status of mind. However, that is exactly what she used to prove the potentiality in it. She also tried to use her suffering experiences to show the uniqueness of this doubleness, because it is only something gained by people who have gone through the process.

Different from Du Bois, Anzaldua talked more about the self-realization and self-cultivation, whereas Du Bois tressed on its influence on the formation of group identity.

[Aleasha Andrews]

I agree, I feel like this has something in relation with understanding your place in society before for you can move past it and create equality. only when she reaches this point of understanding that she is oppressed, she is able to move beyond it and experience life as a more equal individual with those in her society rather than staying in the private sphere and never moving beyond into the public. 

[Tyler Manning]

I do not agree that Anzaldua portrays her version of double consciousness as a disadvantage. I think instead the borders perpetuated by those who do not posses her understanding and tolerance is where the negativity lies. The problem is within the lack of double consciousness that others have and not due to the double consciousness that Anzaldua does have. Although Anzaldua's ideas of double consciousness differ slightly from those of Du Bois, they both possess a unique perspective that allows them to provide their audience with accounts of life from both sides of the veil. 

[hollandb]

I really do no think that Anzaldua portrayed double consciousness as a negative thing.  When she is writing about being queer, she explains that she is both male and female, which would give her the quality of double consciousness.  In the same passage, she mentions that society has made it so that she can only be one or other and not evolve into something better.  When I read that it makes me believe that Anzaldua doesn't think double consciousness like this is a bad thing, but instead a good thing where humans can evolve into new kinds of better people.