Feminist Resistance

Nadošla je ljetna bujica i naša je teretna kobila zapela u rijeci. Rijeka je pljuskala o kamenje i zvuk je bio kao kad brave škljocaju. Bilo je vrijeme silaže i voda je mirisala po travi. Teretna kobila, očeva ljubimica, zašla je u rijeku, da ponjuši možda, pa zapela, ni makac, prednja noga zaglavila među kamenjem. Otac ju je našao i povikao Katie! nadglasavajući se s hukom kiše. Ja sam bila u staji, isplazila jezik da dočekam kapi iz rupe na krovu. Istrčala sam pored kuće u polje. U rijeci je kobila sumanuto kolačila oči kroz kišu, možda me prepoznala. Otac se kretao sporo i preplašeno kao da gazi kroz dubok snijeg, osim što snijega nije bilo, bujica samo, a otac se bojao vode, bojao se oduvijek. Viknuo je Na onaj tamo kamen, mala. Dodao mi je uže s kopčom za povodac i znala sam što mi je činiti. Od oca sam viša još od zadnjeg rođendana, petnaestoga. Raširila sam se kao ljubav i stavila jednu nogu na kamen posred rijeke, rukom uhvatila granu iznad njega i odbacila se preko bujice.

For many years literary theorists considered that women writers of the Beat Generation were not worth mentioning. Being present and absent at the same time, these women remained invisible in popular as well as academic reviews in the Beat Generation literature until the nineties. Today, however, it is crystal clear that the literature of the Beats, even with its distinct misogynistic features, had strong influence on several generations of women writers and artists who have written and performed within the feminist frame. Here we will discuss the women of the Beat Generation who in the early sixties, as insiders within a seemingly male group, started expressing themselves within feminist discourses, through which they sought to free women from the socially imposed roles. The main weapon of the Beat Generation’s fight against globalization, conformism, and class inequalities was the freedom of mind, and this particular mind of beatniks was used by women Beat writers in order to question...

Dan kada sam čula da, onaj da o kojemu sam tako malena i jadna bila toliko sanjala, konačno je stigao jedne subote. Mjesecima, odnosno svaki put kada bi me moj otac odveo u park Bijela voda, molila bih ga da mi kupi balon. Međutim, on bi me svakoga puta odbio s istim, meni nerazumljivim riječima: „Premala si!” Nisam inzistirala poput ostale djece, koja su plakala, lamatala nogama i vrištala prisiljavajući tako roditelje da im ispune želje ili da ih ušutkaju snažnim pritiskom svojih dlanova. Ja bih se samo rastužila, a nastojala sam se oraspoložiti šećernom vatom koju bi mi otac kupio. Čak i kada bih se zabavljala na toboganu, na vrtuljku ili na klackalici, osjećala sam se kao koncem vezana za taj san o balonu u budućnosti. A onda, jedne subote, dok smo ulazili u park, ja odjevena u bijelu suknju i već spremna čuti još jedno ne, vidjela sam svojega oca kako se približava prodavaču balona i govori: „Narasla si, kćeri, smiješ izabrati jedan!” To je bio toliko velik trenutak da sam se cije...

Women writers use the feminist dystopian genre as a way to resist gender-based oppression in complex ways. To do so, women writers must first construct bleak worlds that subjugate their female characters before they can craft ways for these characters to resist. This article specifically examines Octavia Butler’s novel, Dawn, because the central female character finds ways to resist through working within the system in order to work against it. Even though she cannot overthrow the government or escape, she exercises substantial resistance through her body, voice, and intelligence. Butler ultimately demonstrates that women are able to resist from the margins in complex ways, which prompts real-world women readers to fight and resist gender-based oppression in their own societies. Keywords: feminism, Octavia Butler, science fiction, feminist dystopia, genderWomen writers have woven feminist resistance into the fabric of their novels for centuries to protest the misogynistic treatment and...

Bila sam budna iz tri razloga. Prvi: živiš blizu podzemne, a ona se pripremala za svoje prvo dnevno putovanje. Drugi: ispred tvog prozora na drvetu je ptica i dere se na tvoju kuću. Ne znam kakva je to ptica, ni kakvo je to drvo. Treći: pčela, zarobljena pod čašom, od sinoć čeka da je oslobodiš. Namjera je očito postojala, da je preneseš niz stepenice ili pustiš kroz prozor, i zato je razglednica iz Beča ili Sankt Peterburga ili tako nekog mjesta završila pod čašom. Zapravo to uopće nije bila čaša, nego isprana teglica Nutelle i pčela je bila omamljena od cjelonoćnog buljenja u znamenitosti Beča ili Sankt Peterburga i gradskih duhova lješnjaka i šećera, zzzab-zzzab-zzzabijajući glavu o nevidljivi zid na tvom noćnom ormariću. Zarobljena ispod tvoje ruke, trepnula sam promatrajući je. Pčele vide UV svjetlost pa nas je sinoć vjerojatno doživjela kao neki nebulozni disko. Mahnito je mahala glavom, potvrđujući moju pomisao, tim svojim saćastim očima, zvjezdastim kaleidoskopima, dok se vani ...

The paper reads the novel Dessa Rose (1986) by African American author Sherley Anne Williams, and focuses on the duality of motherhood as compounding and healing trauma at the same time. After placing the novel is its socio-cultural and literary context, I argue, relying on Black feminist and Afro-pessimistic theory, that the subversive potential of Williams’s novel lies in its claim that enslaved Black women are capable of healing through (re-)appropriating what is meant to dehumanize them: their stories, their bodies, their children, and their communities.Keywords: contemporary African American literature, Black women’s literature, slavery, motherhood studiesThe novel Dessa Rose (1986) by African American author Sherley Anne Williams interrogates the consequences of the extreme humiliation and almost total annihilation and torture of the Black female body. The eponymous protagonist, an enslaved woman, is denied agency and narrative authority, and is dehumanized by several people in h...