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Politics of the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers of the Third World
Author(s): Ketu Katrak (Author)
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication Date: 15 Feb. 2006
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 0813537142
- ISBN-13: 9780813537146
Book Description
Is it possible to simultaneously belong to and be exiled from a community? In “”Politics of the Female Body,”” Ketu H. Katrak argues that it is not only possible, but common, especially for women who have been subjects of colonial empires. Through her careful analysis of postcolonial literary texts, Katrak uncovers the ways that the female body becomes a site of both oppression and resistance. She examines writers working in the English language, including Anita Desai from India, Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana, and Merle Hodge from Trinidad. The writers share colonial histories, a sense of solidarity, and resistance strategies in the on-going struggles of decolonization that center on the body. Bringing together a rich selection of primary texts, Katrak examines published novels, poems, stories, and essays, as well as activist materials, oral histories, pamphlets, and street theater scripts – forms that push against the boundaries of what is considered strictly literary. In these varied materials, she reveals common political and feminist alliances across geographic boundaries. A unique comparative look at women’s literary work and its relationship to the body in third world societies, this text will be of interest to literary scholars and to those working in the fields of women’s studies and human rights.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Arguing that the postcolonial female body itself is constituted figure of exile and self-alienation Katrak projects a transnational feminist solidarity against states domination or exception, a solidarity that articulates femini postcolonial theory with anticar ist and democratic activism. – Samir Dayal, associate professor English, Bentley College
About the Author
Ketu H. Katrak is the chair of the department of Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Antifeminist Harassment in the Academy.
