Putting flesh on the radicals : the black female body in Angelina Weld Grimke, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Margaret Walker.

Abstract

Trapped in the exploitive system of objectifying definitions generated by the dominant society, the black female body has been the signifier of black women's identities as victims. In the writings of Angelina Weld Grimke, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Margaret Walker, the body acquires agency through its radical acts of resistance to oppression and stereotypical representations. I present a discussion of the three authors' works with the focus on subversive bodily acts with respect to black women's sexual and gender identities, as well as their political situatedness in the class system. My analysis draws on feminist schools of thought, both French and American, as well as on Marxist criticism and critical theory. With the combination of these interpretive tools, I demonstrate how through the appropriation of the discourse of the body, the three Harlem Renaissance women writers empower and redefine the black woman by presenting her body as engaged in meaningful acts of self-assertion and rebellion.