Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat"from oppressive domesticity to subversive domestic violence
- Castillo García, Gema Soledad (ed. lit.)
- Cabellos Castilla, María Rosa (ed. lit.)
- Sánchez Jiménez, Juan Antonio (ed. lit.)
- Carlisle Espínola, Vincent (ed. lit.)
Editorial: Editorial Universidad de Alcalá ; Universidad de Alcalá
ISBN: 8481387096
Año de publicación: 2006
Páginas: 368-377
Tipo: Capítulo de Libro
Resumen
This paper focuses on Delia —from Hurston’s short story “Sweat”— a victim of a violent romantic relationship who suffers at the hands of an abusive husband until she, finally, cannot take any more of it, and kills him. Using Campbell, Stets, and White’s theories on domestic violence, I will try to assess to what extent Hurston’s discourse on battered women not only crosses fixed boundaries but surpasses them all, and at the same time subverts previous discourses on African American women’s passive victimization. I will try to show that Delia’s involuntary but unconsciously desired killing of her husband acts as a metaphor for Hurston’s re-mapping the theme of black female victimization.