FEMALE CUTTING: TASHI‘S STRUGGLES TO GET IDENTITY 300 IN ALICE WALKER‘S POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY

Abstract

This article discusses female genital cutting/female cutting (FGC/FC) which is performed by a group of people by cutting off the genitals girl under the age of twelve years as a womanhood init iat ion in Alice Walker‘s Possessing the Secret of Joy. By using representation theory by Stuart Hall, the analysis performed by the constructionist approach which is based on Foucauld‘s discourse analysis. Possessing the Secret of Joy novel is a primary source of data regarding female genital cutting combined with American conditions in the late 1990s. Representation of female cutting presented in the novel is then used to read the ideological position of the author as a member of American community. The results of this study shows female cutting is seen as a huge loss for women so America makes a strict law in order to ban this practice. However, on the other side this law encourages the female cutting to be done secretly so this novel fails to hegemonic the female cutting doer.