INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056

Reckoning the Voice of the Marginalized: a Study of Austen Clarke’s the Polished Hoe

R. AGSAL

M.Phil. Scholar, PG Research Department

V. O. C. Chidambaram College,

Thoothukudi- 628008.

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli

Tamil Nadu, India.

Email id: [email protected]

Abstract:

The word ‘Feminism’ means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of sexual equality, derived from the French origin Feminisme. Feminism has deeper roots in the individual consciousness than the basic fact of being a woman. The feminist movement is a socio political reality that has grown and developed over a period of time in a variety of different ways: protest against oppression, legal reform, nationalistic concerns, education and social change being only a few of these. Clarke shows how black women evolve from the basic stereotype of sexual state to more shade sense of self a radical black female subjectivity as they navigate the inner workings of sex work and survival procurer. The Polished Hoe sheds light on the double colonization and sexual exploitation of black women both during slavery and after liberation. It examines how women like Clarke’s Ma and Mary, who find themselves in the situations where they can perform the role of procurer by selling themselves or helping others to sell themselves, can shape out a degree of autonomy through playing the system. The Polished Hoe probably places Clarke within the heritage of women writers engaging in conversations about female sexual agency.

Keywords: feminism, exploitation, procurer, sexual agency, heritage.

Introduction:

Gender Studies is a field for interdisciplinary study devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. It is a very broad subject area that encompasses everything

Volume 8 Issue 11 2019 11 http://infokara.com/ INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056 from feminism to transgender theory. It also deals with the various theories of gender, what gender means in today’s society, whether there are any universal truths about gender across cultures. Austen Clarke is a leading figure in Canadian literature. He is a Barbadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who is based in Toronto Ontario.

Austin Clarke’s one of the best compelling novel is The Polished Hoe. It was published in 2002. The novel mostly takes place during the time of one night in the period of postwar fifties, and the prevailing notes are of tragedy and unrealized love. The novel won the Scotiobank Giller Prize 2002 and Trillium Book Award 2003. While writing, Clarke structured his novels in the form of short stories. Through this journey, he started to narrate the incidents as told by Mary-Mathilda, the prominent role in the novel who travel from Miami to Buffalo. The novel was later translated into Dutch.

The word ‘Feminism’ means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of sexual equality, derived from the French origin Feminisme. It was first coined by the French philosopher and Utopian socialist Charles Fourier in 1837. Feminism has deeper roots in the individual consciousness than the basic fact of being a woman. The feminist movement is a socio political reality that has grown and developed over a period of time in a variety of different ways. The feminist activist Carol Hanisch coined the slogan ‘The Personal is political’ which became synonymous with the second wave.

Clarke shows how black women evolve from the basic stereotype of sexual state to more shade sense of self a radical black female subjectivity as they navigate the inner workings of sex work and survival procurer. The Polished Hoe shed light on the double colonization and sexual exploitation of black women both during slavery and after liberation.

In Clarke’s tale, the actions of Mary and her mother, Ma, serve as a political weapon and authoritative voice on the struggle of black women in their attempts to challenge sexual stereotypes. While producing a counter-debate to traditional representations of womanhood through their complex participation in survival procuring and femininity work. It treatises add to growing scholarship that inquest the ways in which black women create safe spaces not to regret but accept their sexuality and the sexual agency.

The protagonists, Ma and Mary, progress and carry on as sexual agents rather than mere victims in their hunt for personhood. Their change towards self, exceed personal subjectivity and serve as a witness to the struggles of women like themselves who endure from the edging and validating. Ma may have been a former victim of repeated abuses, and she may exist in a culture of patriarchy that requires female subjugation and agreements. But by becoming a pimp she is able to challenge that domination by teaching Mary that her body can be used to obtain a better life. The black female body is used as a legal tender indicating the potential for basic survival, financial security and socio economic advancement.

Volume 8 Issue 11 2019 12 http://infokara.com/ INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056

Ma is aware of the various prejudice practices against black women that initially prevent her daughter from securing upward social mobility and her dream for Mary to become a teacher or seamstress is discontinued by the reality that she lacks the wealth to make these dreams materialize. Ma’s own natural attitude towards racist supreme and discourse influence her belief that Mary is saleable because of her light skin and ‘good hair’. Ma asks, “ Why waste these good looks on local Bajan boys who can hardly afford to support themselves, much less provide a good life for a wife? Or, why leave Mary at the mercy of these wolves in the road, in the sea, in the church, in the school, in Sunday school. All o’ them [men] wanted a piece” (144). It examines how women like Clarke’s Ma and Mary, who find themselves in the situations where they can perform the role of procurer by selling themselves or helping others to sell themselves, can shape out a degree of autonomy through playing the system. Brutalization of Feminism shows how the female workers who work in the sugar plantation are enslaved and suffered under the clutches of white radical society.

Works Cited Clarke, Austin. The Polished Hoe. New York, Thomas Allen Publishers, 2003, ISBN: 0954-1303-83.

Volume 8 Issue 11 2019 13 http://infokara.com/