The Politics of Womanhood and the Poetics of Mothering the White Other in Stockett’s The Help
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Date
2024-06
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UNIVERSITÉ MOHAMED BOUDIAF - M’SILA
Abstract
The present research delves into the politics of womanhood and the poetics of mothering the “White Other” in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. The study sheds light on the aspects of womanhood, solidarity and support of Black women in empowering the White Other in the face of the double oppression ensuing from the American Exceptionalism. The research is aims at highlighting the important role the Black maids played in shaping minds, initiating the change and fighting the racial norms through mothering the others. To ponder the aspects of the Black females’ identity, the research makes recourse to an eclectic approach where notions of Walker’s Womanism and Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” intersect in order to glean understanding of how the voiceless can acquire a voice. On the other hand, the study resorts to other minor theories such as psychoanalysis- mainly trans-generational trauma - to back up the analysis. The findings of this research work are that through mental and emotional support the black females strengthen their selfhood to alter their destinies. In a sense, writing is increasingly growing as an empowering tool that enables the Black females to voice their revolt, challenge the societal hierarchy and denounce the white supremacy. Interestingly enough, it is concluded that care giving, nurturing and mothering the others are means of activism that install the human norms while mothering and nurturing minds.
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Keywords
Womanhood, mothering, Womanism, poetics, oppression, Exceptionalism