FEMALE BODY AND SEXUALITY AS A SITE FOR FEMINIST RESISTANCE IN POSTCOLONIAL CARIBBEAN PERSPECTIVE IN JAMAICA KINCAID’S NOVEL LUCY

Abstract

This paper explores how the Caribbean young women in the novel Lucy (1990) resist the
conventional Caribbean upbringings by using their bodies. Lucy in Kincaid’s novel brushes off
all the Caribbean decencies and righteousness that define the restrictions of female sexuality
anticipating and returning men’s sexual advances. The central character, Lucy, in the novel
ascertains that only sex cannot emancipate her from societal restriction, and that she has further
closeness to the Caribbean principles and society than she comprehended. Fictional illustrations
of Caribbean moral and ethical prospects of the sexualities of women are studied by means of
their involvement into sexual activities. Lucy routines sex as an element of her shift towards
emotional mellowness. This paper attempts to explore the female body and sexuality in
postcolonial Caribbean perspectives by analyzing the female body as a site for feminist
resistance. She revolts against the conventional female structure and Caribbean norms by
initiating sex with the young boy, so she overcomes these barriers of tradition and history. The
female body then turns out to be the place of confrontation for gaining control over the
patriarchal mindset. Lucy’s corporeal space comes to be the solitary option for combating and
confronting colonial patriarchal structures. It shows that literally every feature of female
individuality and attempt for freedom and self-determination is influenced by the restraints of
female sexuality. Lucy’s choice of debasing the significance of her body as an act of resistance
examines the ways by which a female’s body functions as an act of defiance to oppressive
Caribbean patriarchal structures.