Clara's "sext" : writing the female body in leonora sansay’s secret history
International Journal of Development Research
Clara's "sext" : writing the female body in leonora sansay’s secret history
Received 05th April, 2017; Received in revised form 24th May, 2017; Accepted 06th June, 2017; Published online 22nd July, 2017
Copyright ©2017, Majid Salem Mgamis. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The paper examines Leonora Sansay’s Secret History with view at highlighting the unique way the author has tackled the issue of woman. Unlike mainstream feminist work, Sansay's text does not merely dwell on the oppression women face from the patriarchal community; rather it highlights women's agency in combating such oppression. Sansay's female characters prove to possess considerable level of power and agency that enable that enables them to resist both the patriarchal as well as colonial subjugation they face. This power comes basically from the female body. In line with Helen Cixous' call on women to celebrate their bodies as a sign of empowerment, female characters in Sansay's work clearly use their body and sexuality as a means of deconstructing the colonial-patriarchal agenda that govern their lives.
