Contextualizing gender: a Comparative Study of Speak and The Round House

Abstract

Feminist discourse has gone a long way to reject any fixed categories or definitions for itself. While keeping its interest in gender issue, modern day feminists reject any major generalization at the cost of ignoring diversity of various groups and identities. In this scenario, postmodern feminism has become a practice to contextualize every gender problematic to understand the subtle nuances and deeper layers behind the question of women’s identity and freedom. Present paper sheds light in these different layers by comparing two different situations both of which involve a rape of central woman protagonist. While one is the case of a teenage girl from white American society, another one is a married woman from Native American culture. While rape brutally affects both the women, there are differences in the mechanisms and workings of this exploitation.