‘The Story You Were Telling Us' Re-Reading love in Alice Walker's By The Light of My Father's Smile through Luce Irigaray's Theory

Authors

Özlem Görey

Orginal Publication Date

2003

Journal Title

Ethnic Studies Review

Volume

26

Issue

esr/vol26/iss1

First Page

29

Last Page

44

Comments

Literature: A Special Issue

Abstract

This article considers Alice Walker's novel By the Light of My Father's Smile in the light of the theories of French feminist Luce Irigaray. It concentrates particularly on the redefinition of love through the creation of a maternal genealogy. It explores how the severe punishment of one of the daughters, as a result of her love affair with a young Indian boy, results in the deep scarring of all the family for the rest of their lives. Interpreting this traumatic event as a metaphorical Oedipal break from the mother, this discussion aims to show the ways in which both the novelist and the theoretician explore the possibility of redefining the term 'love' through the mother-daughter relationship.

Rights

​Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 2003