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.