Wow, it made some sense, yay! Whew. I found a bunch of typos in it, though.... it made me so angry I had to get a whipping. :)
I was thinking more about this, in connection with a book I read by Gayl Jones, called 'Corregidora.' A really beautiful but disturbing book about a woman who must cope not only with abusive relationships in her present - sexual abuse, beating, etc. - but also abuse in her family's past. Her female ancestors were slaves, owned by a man named Corregidora. Besides just being a slaveowning fuck, wrong to begin with, he blatnatly sexually abused the women (as slaveowners often did), made them submit to his will constantly in very humiliating ways. The protagonist of the story always heard stories about his abuse from her mother and grandmother, and feels that even she in the present can't escape this kind of dominance. Even though the days of "official" slavery are over, she somehow feels connected to it and trapped by it. She runs away from dominant men, but can't seem to escape them; but at the end takes her ex-husband (who threw her down the stairs and caused her to lose her baby and never be able to have children after that) back to her house, undresses him and herself, and kneels before him to give him oral sex.... something she always refused to do before. She submits herself to a man who was formerly abusive to her - is literally on her knees before him, very symbolic. And many critics argue that, in doing so, she is able to overcome the pain connected with submission of both her own personal past and her family's, and resolve it - that's the end of the book, resolution both in form and content has been reached. Submission as "therapy." But like you said, it's so subtle, and complex, and tricky.... other critics argue that nothing is resolved at the end. And in fact, it is very debatable. The book really ends with him climaxing, and her saying to him, still on her knees, "I could kill you." Then he tells her, "I don't want a woman who would hurt me," and she replies "I don't want a man who would hurt me either." And then it ends. You're not sure if they're going to get back together and everything will have changed, been resolved, be healthy and happy, if resolution really has been reached (climax is resolution, but does this symbolism really imply *full* resolution?); or if the cycle of humiliation, dominance, abuse and submission will continue. It's REALLY interesting, and reminded me of this discussion.
Yeah.
There's lots of dicussion of sex, dominance, submission, empowerment, and related stuff in colonial/post-colonial literature and criticism.... all related to race, gender, and power. It's really interesting. You might dig it :)
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2002-03-16 01:53 pm (UTC)I was thinking more about this, in connection with a book I read by Gayl Jones, called 'Corregidora.' A really beautiful but disturbing book about a woman who must cope not only with abusive relationships in her present - sexual abuse, beating, etc. - but also abuse in her family's past. Her female ancestors were slaves, owned by a man named Corregidora. Besides just being a slaveowning fuck, wrong to begin with, he blatnatly sexually abused the women (as slaveowners often did), made them submit to his will constantly in very humiliating ways. The protagonist of the story always heard stories about his abuse from her mother and grandmother, and feels that even she in the present can't escape this kind of dominance. Even though the days of "official" slavery are over, she somehow feels connected to it and trapped by it. She runs away from dominant men, but can't seem to escape them; but at the end takes her ex-husband (who threw her down the stairs and caused her to lose her baby and never be able to have children after that) back to her house, undresses him and herself, and kneels before him to give him oral sex.... something she always refused to do before. She submits herself to a man who was formerly abusive to her - is literally on her knees before him, very symbolic. And many critics argue that, in doing so, she is able to overcome the pain connected with submission of both her own personal past and her family's, and resolve it - that's the end of the book, resolution both in form and content has been reached. Submission as "therapy." But like you said, it's so subtle, and complex, and tricky.... other critics argue that nothing is resolved at the end. And in fact, it is very debatable. The book really ends with him climaxing, and her saying to him, still on her knees, "I could kill you." Then he tells her, "I don't want a woman who would hurt me," and she replies "I don't want a man who would hurt me either." And then it ends. You're not sure if they're going to get back together and everything will have changed, been resolved, be healthy and happy, if resolution really has been reached (climax is resolution, but does this symbolism really imply *full* resolution?); or if the cycle of humiliation, dominance, abuse and submission will continue. It's REALLY interesting, and reminded me of this discussion.
Yeah.
There's lots of dicussion of sex, dominance, submission, empowerment, and related stuff in colonial/post-colonial literature and criticism.... all related to race, gender, and power. It's really interesting. You might dig it :)