Surviving the Weight of Tradition: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy

If, in the patriarchal system, femininity is defined in terms of lack and absence, in contrast to the male presence, as Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray contend see Moi for a discussion of Cixous’s and Irigaray’s work , the presence of the clitoris seems to challenge and endanger that presupposition. The female body may then be manipulated in such a way as to render that threatening presence ineffectual before the phallocentric power. The female body can be inscribed upon, becoming the text written by the male hand. This image of the female body as text reminds us of a well-known African-American character whose body is engraved by the white male and read by others, but not by herself. I am referring to Sethe in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved 1987 . Sethe, Beloved’s mother, is “branded” on her back as a sign of possession and property. Her scars are read and interpreted as different shapes or figures by other people.

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