Surname 1
Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Comparison of Female Subjugation and Resistance in
Season of Migration to the North
and
Breath, Eyes, and Memory.
This essay will explore the subjugation and resistance of females in
Tayeb Salih’s Season
of Migration to the North
(1969) and
Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory
(1994).
Although these books have been written some 25 years apart, they share a common thread in
which society suppresses the female’s right to do whatever she pleases with her own body, but
permits their male counterpart’s debilitating obsession with the same. I will also study how
females within both stories adopted and supported the same patriarchal practices which they
hated. From the misogynistic techniques to the narrative styles, the likenesses and disparities
between these two texts are very distinct.
In Season of Migration, women are subjected to female circumcision and cannot accept
or deny a marriage proposal, whereas, in Breath, Eyes, Memory, the traditional testing is
performed. Like this, both are done in hopes of maintaining female purity until marriage. A
significant gap that is palpable is the different writing styles that both authors employed.
Danticat's story is told from a female perspective, whilst Salih’s is told from a male’s viewpoint.
Nonetheless, it is evident that the females in these two stories have employed exile, whether
physical or psychosomatic as a coping mechanism and for that reason, I will use Spivak's essay,
“Can the Subaltern Speak?” which talks about the relations that exist between social domination
Surname 2
and resistance, where gender is specifically conceptualized as a site of struggle as my theoretical
framework.
To properly understand why the performance and acceptance of the misogynistic sexual
violence against women were average, I look at the historical context of the two novels.
Seasons
of Migration to the North
is a fictional, post-colonial Sudanese novel, which was initially
published in Salih’s native Arabic tongue before its subsequent translation to more than twenty
languages.
The book’s inception coincided with Sudan’s tenth independence anniversary from
Britain, which is profoundly influenced by the turbulent political and events of that period. Two
You've reached the end of your free preview.
Want to read all 6 pages?
- Fall '18
- Breath, Eyes, Memory, Virginity, Season of Migration to the North
