Oppr Ession And Rebellion:An Interpretation Of By The Light Of My Father’s Smile Based On Foucault’s Theory Of Power

Alice Walker is a distinguished African American woman writer. With The Color Purple, her masterpiece, Walker became the first African American woman writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. As a black woman, Walker always keeps a watchful eye on the issues about the life of the black women, and dedicates herself to the promotion of gender equality and the harmony between men and women. This is reflected in most of her works. By the Light of My Father’s Smile is no exception.Since publication, By the Light of My Father’s Smile has caused heated debates from numerous scholars and critics both at home and abroad. Critical approaches to the novel range from ecofeminism, womanism to narratology and others, among which the study based on Foucault’s theory of power is relatively new and leaves more space for further research.In By the Light of My Father’s Smile, the operation of the power network in human society and the state of individual existence in the power network are what Alice Walker is concerned with. For this reason, this thesis tries to interpret the novel with Foucault’s theory of power. It is composed of five parts. The first part is an introduction of Alice Walker, the novel By the Light of My Father’s Smile and the previous studies about this novel at home and abroad. Foucault’s theory of power is also introduced in this part. Chapter One presents the sufferings of the mothers and daughters under the oppression of the patriarchal power. In order to subjugate women, men adopt many disciplinary methods, such as examination, hierarchical observation and normalizing judgment. As a result, women become not only victims of patriarchy but some of them even become accomplices of it. Chapter Two discusses how modern women like Magdalena, Susannah, Pauline and Irene resist the tyrannical patriarchal power by controlling their own bodies, gaining the discourse power, and pursuing sisterhood and autonomy. Chapter Three elaborates on women’s endeavor to get rid of patriarchal oppression and win their real liberation in the unity of women and the reconciliation with men. The last part is the conclusion, which highlights the point that women should combine the individual resistance with the unity among groups. Only in this way can they achieve the aspiration of gender equality and harmony. Apart from solving problems incurred by patriarchal power, Foucault’s power theory has a great significance to modern women’s development.