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The Rhetoric of Revenge in Feminist Texts About MISREADING JUSTICE: THE RHETORIC OF REVENGE IN FEMINIST TEXTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE by KIMBERLY PAIGE BOWERS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON May 2008 Copyright © by Kimberly Paige Bowers 2008 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am so grateful for the time and energy my committee has devoted to this project. My director, Dr. Stacy Alaimo, gave me the freedom to take my writing in the direction I wanted and encouraged me to explore ideas I had not initially considered. I cannot imagine a person better suited to serve as my advisor. Committee members Dr. Kenneth Roemer and Dr. Laurin Porter also offered me invaluable advice on both the content and form of my dissertation. I learned a great deal from Dr. Porter’s comments about my writing, and I also benefited from her insightful analyses of many of the texts I discuss. Dr. Roemer’s emphasis on organization, clarity, and audience guided my writing, and his passion for literature inspired and challenged me. I would also like to thank a few people who supported me outside of the university’s walls. First, I’d like to thank Matt Levy who, during my first three semesters of writing, was shrewd enough to recognize that most of my dissertation woes were little match for good Asian food. Secondly, I’d like to thank Laura Skipper who started cheering me on while I was preparing for my comprehensive exams and has not quit yet. And finally, I would like to thank my mother who has supported me in ways unimaginable by many. April 7, 2008 iii ABSTRACT MISREADING JUSTICE: THE RHETORIC OF REVENGE IN FEMINIST TEXTS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Kimberly Paige Bowers, PhD. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008 Supervising Professor: Stacy Alaimo Feminist legal theories of battering homicides pose a challenge to feminist critics of American literature. Legal theorists argue that many women who are tried for killing their abusive partners should be acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. While they have had some success, stereotypes suggesting that women who kill are vengeful result in the wrongful convictions of too many female defendants. Feminist narratives that depict women who kill their abusers abound in American literature. Too often the scholarship on these narratives conflates revenge and self-defense, contributing to the problems feminist lawyers face. Looking at literature and legal scholarship from the nineteen-teens to the present, I illustrate how feminist literary critics and feminist legal theorists are sometimes at odds with one another, despite sharing the goal of creating a society that better protects and represents women. iv Keeping feminist legal issues in mind, I ask why scholars have conflated self- defense and revenge in their analyses of narratives that depict battering homicides. Some scholars take their cues from feminist texts that equate violence with empowerment. Other critics recognize the way some authors and performers treat the death of male abusers as fodder for entertainment, critiquing the way society fails to take violence against women seriously. Additionally, as justice scholars point out, the criminal justice system suggests that revenge is a natural response to victimization. Revenge fantasies seem to follow “naturally” from this system. In Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization , Ladelle McWhorter points out that oppressive networks of power must be challenged by technologies of the self that contradict the driving interests of the network being opposed. If McWhorter is correct, then using revenge fantasies to critique violence against women will not create a society that better supports women. Recognizing this problem, I argue that feminist literary scholars and artists look for ways to transform the self that preclude violence. Texts as diverse as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl” illustrate the way vengeful fantasies can be replaced by pleasurable activities that counter punitive networks of power and help their audiences imagine peaceful communities. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv Chapter Page 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Theories on Domestic Violence and Battered Women Women Who Kill........................................................................................... 11 1.2 Structure of this Dissertation .................................................................. 16 2 “KNOT IT”: MURDER, MARRIAGE, AND MAYHEM IN THE 1920S .............................................................................................. 20 2.1 Domestic Abuse in the 1920s ................................................................. 21 2.2 In the Press.............................................................................................. 28 2.3 Driven to Murder .................................................................................... 34 2.3.1 Glaspell .................................................................................... 34 2.3.2 Hurston..................................................................................... 43 2.3.3 Treadwell ................................................................................. 50 2.4 Feminism and Revenge........................................................................... 58 2.4.1 Chicago .................................................................................... 59 2.5 Blues Women.......................................................................................... 69 2.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 78 vi 3. REAPING AND SEWING: A LESSON IN TRANSFORMATION ........................................................................ 80 3.1 Their Eyes Were Watching God ........................................................ 89 3.2 The Color Purple ............................................................................... 105 3.3 Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple ................................................ 126 3.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 134 4. THE SHAPE OF THINGS: WHAT JLO, THE DIXIE CHICKS, AND SHELL SHAKERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE BODY POLITIC ............................................................... 136 4.1 The Body Politic ............................................................................... 139 4.2 The Body of Scholarship ................................................................... 144 4.3 Enough .............................................................................................. 146 4.4 “Goodbye Earl” ................................................................................. 157 4.5 Shell Shaker ....................................................................................... 166 4.6 The Dialogue between the Works...................................................... 186 4.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 187 5. TRANSFORM YOURSELF AND TRANSFORM THE WORLD: QUESTIONING FEMINIST BODIES .................................................................................................... 189 5.1 Self and Communal Transformation ................................................. 191 5.2 Self-Defense ...................................................................................... 194 5.2.1 Vengeful Rhetoric .......................................................... 200 5.2.2 The Threat of Violence................................................... 204 5.2.3 Armed for Defense ......................................................... 206 vii 5.2.4 Restructuring Society ..................................................... 208 5.2.5 Unintended Effects ......................................................... 209 5.3 Yoga................................................................................................... 213 5.3.1 Magical Thinking ........................................................... 220 5.3.2 Sexist Transformations.................................................... 224 5.3.3 Future Possibilities .......................................................... 226 5.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 227 6. CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 228 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................ 234 BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT............................................................................. 248 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION When I first heard the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” I was seeing a therapist in an attempt to heal from a number of unhealthy relationships. I felt like everyone I knew thought I should just accept sexism in my intimate and professional relationships. The previous year I had worked at a restaurant where violence against women surfaced weekly as fodder for jokes. My family felt like I had a “feminist chip” on my shoulder
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