Araştırma Makalesi

Domestic violence and sexual abuse in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: The crisis of Subjectivity

Sayı: 37 21 Aralık 2023
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Domestic violence and sexual abuse in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: The crisis of Subjectivity

Abstract

Black women are born and bred to be courageous, bold, and without pain. However, the strength they have had to portray is the abuse they endure in silence. In their fiction, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison portray black female protagonists who suffered domestic abuse and sexual violence. In this study, Julia Kristeva’s theory of subjectivity is assigned to reflect how females regain their authentic and natural place in the culture and political language through active participation. Not only do they free themselves from oppression, but they also save the male subject from emptiness, instability, and immobility. However, the sheer honesty portrayed within the pages of The Color Purple and The Bluest Eye was not warmly welcomed by the black community mainly because they stray from the norm and portray the struggles of black women at the hands of fellow black men. For Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, silence is not the way to go, suggesting Kristeva’s solutions to the problem of female subjectivity due to the edifice of participation. Hence, this study highlights domestic violence and sexual abuse in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison through the depiction of the lost subjectivity. Walker, Morrison, and feminist critics highlight the analogies between black-feminist authors who do not compete with other females or their mothers—but cause substantial competition at the academic level—and this is an ingenuous sense of human nature. Regardless of the economic difficulties of modern life, racial terrors, and the cultural background of African-Americans, they observe how the American society mirrors the untold truths of blacks who speak to the world about their sufferings. Being a global and well-known figure for Walker and Morrison leads to voicing African-American society’s concerns and reflecting its culture and identity.

Keywords

Kaynakça

  1. A layered look at domestic violence in the Black Community. Coburn Place. (2022, May 12). Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://coburnplace.org/stories/a-layered-look-at-domestic-violence-in-the-black-community/
  2. Barlow, J. N. (2020, February). Black women, the forgotten survivors of sexual assault. In the Public Interest. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/pi/about/newsletter/2020/02/black-women-sexual-assault.
  3. Bhardwaj, N. (2016). The Bluest Eye: A tragedy of oppression and internalized racism. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 4(8), 101–104. https://doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0408014
  4. Collins, P. H. (2009). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
  5. Duru, N. J. (2004). The Central Park Five, The Scottsboro Boys, and the myth of the bestial Black man. Cardozo Law Review, 25, 1315- 1345. Available from http://papers.ssrn.com/ sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=814072
  6. Guberman, R. (Ed.) (1996). Julia Kristeva Interviews. Columbia University Press.
  7. Hall, D. E. (2006). Subjectivity. Routledge.
  8. Harris, N. B. (2020, June 6). Adverse childhood experiences. Mutual Assistance Network. Retrieved June 6, 2022, from https://www.mutualassistance.org/adverse-childhood-experiences/

Ayrıntılar

Birincil Dil

İngilizce

Konular

İngiliz ve İrlanda Dili, Edebiyatı ve Kültürü

Bölüm

Araştırma Makalesi

Yazarlar

Charlene Erica Dushıme Bu kişi benim
0000-0002-1965-6507
Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti

Yayımlanma Tarihi

21 Aralık 2023

Gönderilme Tarihi

17 Eylül 2023

Kabul Tarihi

20 Aralık 2023

Yayımlandığı Sayı

Yıl 2023 Sayı: 37

Kaynak Göster

APA
Hashemıpour, S., & Dushıme, C. E. (2023). Domestic violence and sexual abuse in The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: The crisis of Subjectivity. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 37, 1239-1249. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1406004