An Interpretation Of By The Light Of My Father’s Smile From The Perspective Of Queer Theory

In By the Light of My Father’s Smile (1998), Alice Walker spared no effort to explore love between women, conflicts between sexuality and soul, and the close relationship between body and soul. It was regarded as Walker’s most erotic novel by far and was mistaken for a manifesto of lesbianism by many scholars.This thesis attempts to study the novel in light of queer theory to dig out deep humanistic concern and positive meaning inherent in the work. Firstly, based on Butler’s theory of performance, this thesis studies the sexuality in the novel through challenging the foundation of heterosexuality hegemony:the stable relationship among sex, gender and sexuality. Moreover, it explores the historical and cultural determinations for the construction of lesbianism described in the work. Secondly, revolving around the performance of gender about masculinity and femininity, this thesis analyzes masculine temperament and "androgyny" characteristics of female images in the novel. Through the doubt of the innate ability, nature and identity of gender to show that the strict division between masculinity and femininity is becoming more and more blurry. Thirdly, it illustrates the deconstruction of dominant culture and reconstruction of minority culture in the book, and puts forth that it is an embrace of gender equality and coexistence, which conveys Walker’s sincere concern for the human wholeness of survival.