Sexual Gaze In Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs is an influential writer in the history of African American literature,who contributed significantly to the development of early black female literature.As the first female slave narrative,her autobiography,Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,exposes the essence of sexual oppression of American racial slavery.Up to now,scholars at home and abroad have studied the work from the perspectives of morality,religion,authenticity,gender relations,narrative strategies and techniques,without paying enough attention to power relations in the work.Based on the gaze theory,this thesis analyzed the phenomenon of sexual gaze as a manifestation of power.Under slavery,black slaves in America suffered from not only economic exploitation but also sexual oppression.This was especially the case with black women,who were regarded as both breeding machines to increase the wealth of the society and tools to satisfy their masters’ sexual needs.To use Foucault’s words,American society under slavery was like a panoramic prison,where dominated slaves were under constant surveillance.This kind of surveillance takes the form of sexual gaze in Jacobs’ narrative.Linda,the enslaved black heroine,is put under three types of gaze,which come from her white master,white mistress and the white society in general respectively.Her white master’s gaze is full of sexual harassment,her white mistress’ s gaze is characterized by sexual jealousy,and the society punishes black female slaves based on double moral standards in terms of sex.However,instead of giving in to such sexual oppression,Linda responds with countermeasures.First,by having sex with another kind white man voluntarily and thus becoming pregnant,she regains control over her own body.Second,by concealing herself in a garret,she is able to free herself from sexual harassment temporarily.Finally,by escaping from the South to the North in spite of various obstacles,she succeeds in freeing herself from the double sexual standards in the South.Through such efforts,she is able to construct her subjectivity,not only enjoying physical freedom from slavery,but regaining her rights as a mother.Jacobs’ s narrative exposes the nature of moral degeneration of American racial slavery.What’s more,it presents a new image of black female slaves who are brave enough to resist sexual oppression,thus showing African American women the way to achieve their racial freedom and gender equality.