Black female bodies and resistance in Gayl Jones Corregidora and Eva's Man

Abstract

For the black women writers, the body becomes a potent medium for addressing the misrepresentations of the black women in history. It gives them a scope to present the marginalized truths about them and to reappropriate them as subjects. Gayl Jones' writing is also grounded in the black women's experiences. By giving her characters control over their bodies, she gives them a voice to articulate their truths. This article examines the ways in which the black women characters in Jones confront the body, their genetic inheritance, their degradation in history and their memories that have connections with a dark past. There is an attempt to demonstrate how the embodying of the physical self not only gives these women characters the courage to challenge the monolithic representations of black women, but also allows them to reclaim their spaces and to evolve as self-liberated, self-validated women.