The Micro-power Operation In Possessing The Secret Of Joy

Possessing the Secret of Joy is the fifth novel of Alice Walker,the first black woman writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in American literature.Alice Walker holds a very important position among African-American writers.The main content of Possessing the Secret of Joy is to reveal the mutilations of African female circumcision through the tragic experiences of the protagonist Tashi and other characters.In this novel,Tashi is initially trapped by the physical and psychological trauma of circumcision,but later develops a sense of self and a willingness to fight back to free herself from her spiritual predicament.Through this work,the author makes readers realize that such a brutal system still exists in the modern civilized society.Since the publication of this book,it has aroused a heated discussion in foreign critical circle.However,most of the domestic studies of Alice Walker focus on The Third Life of Copeland,Meridian and The Color Purple.Possessing the Secret of Joy has not been dealt with carefully and even not translated into Chinese.The author argues that the physical and psychological trauma suffered by Tashi and other characters as a result of female genital mutilation is a bloody indictment of the manipulation of women’s bodies and minds by a patriarchal society.According to the micro-power theory of the Michel Foucault,the state apparatus and various institutions control the human body and discipline the human mind through the operation of a micro-power.As a means of serving the power,female genital mutilation takes the black female body as the object of knowledge to conquer the human body and make it docile and useful.Using Michel Foucault’s theory of power and discipline,this thesis,by analyzing the double trauma of female body and mind caused by excision,reveals the phenomenon that women are imprisoned and brutalized by the social culture and customs of patriarchy,it also reveals the truth that men are also victims of patriarchal discipline.This thesis tries to point out that the root of the black women’s and even the black men’s tragedies lies in the micro-power control and discipline of the human body in the patriarchal social culture.Women realize the awakening of real consciousness and rebel against control,and seek the real self-worth.Men also need to get rid of the patriarchal discipline,have equal treatment of women,the black nation can achieve whole survival.