Gendered Violence and Female Agency in Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero and Toni Morrison's Beloved

Abstract

The review paper summarizes the studies on gendered violence and women's agency, as presented in Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi and Beloved by Toni Morrison. Although direct comparative studies that occur during this period are not widely found in the literature that has been provided, this analysis relies on the personal evaluation of each of the novels. Woman at Point Zero is analyzed in the way Firdaus is oppressed by patriarchal structures, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), economic oppression, and marginalization in the system, and her resistance and identity recovery. Beloved is discussed based on its portrayal of the experienced deep trauma and structural violence experienced by Black women in the slavery system that centers around physical and sexual abuse, commodification of the body, and the mental effect of past injustices in its characters, such as Sethe. Both novels are revealed to contain the theme of gendered violence, which is firmly rooted in socio-economic and cultural systems, and the protagonists can exhibit various modes of agency despite such severe oppression. The review draws the similarity in the systemic quality of violence, commodification of the body, and resilience, and the difference based on the specific socio-historical contexts. It ends with the determination of possible avenues to do future comparative research to gain further insights into the influence of various oppressive systems on the experience and female agentic expression.