Female Body as a Muse of Feminist Consciousness in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Kouadio Pascal KOFFI

Volume 16 – Septembre 2021 : Le corps dans les productions artistiques et culturelles : entre esthétique et signification (2021) Page(s) 56 - 70 ISSN 2076-6130

“Women are somehow more biological, more corporeal, and more natural than men”, writes E. Grosz (1994, p. 14). From this statement, one can assess the role body plays in dichotomous construction of identity linked to gender. Then, female physical appearance is reduced to sexuality and connotes immanence 1 , condescendence, and locus of male dominance. Moreover, female body becomes a fertile ground from which emerges an array of gender biased theories justifying the social meanings of female anatomy/physiology viewed through sexuality according to K. Lennon (2019). Such a philosophy undermines the feminist approaches to resisting patriarchy and social parameters of womanhood linked to sexuality. Some postcolonial female texts (such as Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon) redeem that question and reveal the pertinent role female body can play in women’s struggle against male supremacy on female body and sexuality. Thereby, how does Amma Darko’s novel puts forth the corporeal argument of female consciousness about gender oppression? Or, to which extent does female body initiate Amma Darko’s feminist consciousness? These questions raise the issue of both physical and metaphysical body and sexuality in feminism. The issue calls for H. Cixous’ view of women’s resistance (1976) that consists of throwing themselves into literary texts. It may also legitimate the materialistic vision of feminism (see C. Delphy, 2003 and C. Guillaumin, 1978). Thereby, taking into account all these aforemen

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Kouadio Pascal KOFFI. « Female Body as a Muse of Feminist Consciousness in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon ». Revue Ivoirienne de Langues Étrangères, Numéro 16, 2021, p. 56. ISSN 2076-6130.