Between feminism and abolitionism: gender and otherness in the novel The Invention of Wings
Abstract
This work explores the constructs of gender and otherness in the novel The Invention of Wings, written by the American author Sue Monk Kidd, through the analysis of the main female character, Sarah Grimké. This work focuses, on the one hand, on the construction of gender-based otherness within the family, through the education and the gender roles imposed on the protagonist in the antebellum South. On the other hand, it discusses the intricate relationship between the origin and development of the feminist and the abolitionist movement in the United States, in both of which Grimké was an activist. It also deals with the tensions this relationship produced on the aforementioned movements. The concepts of gender and otherness are approached from the perspective of feminist criticism, with an emphasis on the interrelation between the notions of patriarchy, internal colonization and the geographic conception of otherness.
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