Henry James OM ( 15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.He was the son of Henry James Sr. And the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. Read 69 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. This anthology of classic and cutting-edge statements in literary theory has now been updated to include recent. Paperback, Second Edition, 1314 pages. My only criticism is that Rivkin & Ryan's section chapters occasionally get lost in some convoluted.
Helena Parente Cunha's novel, Woman Between Mirrors explores the many ways in which a dominant and domineering patriarchy can and does impose itself upon its subjects through what Louis Althusser calls interpellation. Parente Cunha's woman, a true twentieth-century heroine, faces her divided self—a self determined by ideology—and begins a quest which will end when she becomes an 'I' before her shattered mirrors.
But before that can happen, she must author herself, and, in the process of writing herself, she must overcome the demons of location and recognition. In the material sense, the woman must locate herself geographically, historically, socially, and physically. Existentially, she must locate herself as an acting, functioning, speaking, unified 'I'—unified, in the sense that she is recognizable 'in her entirety'; in order to do that, she must recognize herself in the multiple images of the mirror at the same time as she breaks the mirror images which her society reflects back to her—to be able to say 'I' and to know that identity is not coherent and unified but that it has many facets, many voices, many responsibilities, becomes the object of her quest.
ST&TCLW here am I? The P roblem of Location and Recognition in Helena Parente Cunha's Woman Between MirrorsJoanne GassCalifornia State University-FullertonThi s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Recommended Citation-Follow this and additional works at: License.W here am I? The P roblem of Location and Recognition inHelena Parente Cunha's Woman Between MirrorsAbstractHelena Parente Cunha's novel, Woman Between Mirrors explores the many ways in which a dominant anddomineering patriarchy can and does impose itself upon its subjects through what Louis Althusser callsinterpellation. Parente Cunha's woman, a true twentieth-century heroine, faces her divided self—a selfdetermined by ideology—and begins a quest which will end when she becomes an 'I' before her shatteredmirrors. But before that can happen, she must author herself, and, in the process of writing herself, she mustovercome the demons of location and recognition. In the material sense, the woman must locate herselfgeographically, historically, socially, and physically.
Existentially, she must locate herself as an acting,functioning, speaking, unified 'I'—unified, in the sense that she is recognizable 'in her entirety'; in order todo that, she must recognize herself in the multiple images of the mirror at the same time as she breaks themirror images which her society reflects back to her—to be able to say 'I' and to know that identity is notcoherent and unified but that it has many facets, many voices, many responsibilities, becomes the object of herquest.Thi s article is available in Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: am I? The Problem ofLocation and Recognition in HelenaParente Cunha's Woman Between MirrorsJoanne GassCalifornia State University-Fullerton'Who can recognize the faces ofthe faces of truth?' -Helena Parente Cunha, Woman Between MirrorsIn an article on mirroring and art, Bernice L. Hausman relates thestory of Echo and Narcissus. Narcissus, she says, sees his reflection,and inspired by it, speaks before he dies and becomes the 'paradigmof man-the-artist' (Words Between Women 205). Echo, punished forhaving said too much, is condemned to repeat what the male says. 'Ineffect, Echo mirrors through speech what is spoken to her and losesthe power to generate original text.
She can only reflect the wordsof the male artist and, in her silence, becomes the mirror throughwhich the male voice speaks' (Hausman 205). Women, like Echo,Become mirrors for men within patriarchal society; denied selfhood,women are expected to reflect the personhood of men. At the sametime, however, women also try to find themselves within mirrors,using them to evaluate themselves within the community of women,seeing in them patriarchy's vision of the 'real woman.' The mirror isa pre-written text, speaking the patriarchal language and inscribed withpatriarchal values: in it 'woman' is 'written,' and to it women mustattend in order to reflect adequately what is already there. (205-06)Hence, the mirror mirrors not the woman herself but socialStudies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Vol. 1 2005, Art.
5ST&TCL, Volume 29, No. 1 (Winter 2005)and cultural images which tell the woman who and what sheshould be. The woman's desire to 'know herself'-anessential self-is forever doubly deflected, first by a patriarchaldiscourse which demands that a woman reflect male identity andsecond by the image she sees mirrored in other women,themselves bound by an image 'written' for them in Narcissus' gaze.Hausman's conception of the woman artist's reflection of themale artist's voice corresponds in a very fundamental way withLouis Althusser's theory of interpellation. In 'Ideology and IdeologicalState Apparatuses,' Althusser identifies what he calls the 'duplicatemirror structure of ideology,' which interpellates the subject andguarantees that the subject will not only reflect the appropriateideological image but also will do so willingly (Rivken and Ryan302). The 'good' subject not only conforms; she accepts herconformity as part of the natural order of things. She recognizes hersubjectivity and is recognized by the 'Subject.' Althusser assertsthat there is a 'mutual recognition of subjects and Subject, thesubjects' recognition of each other, and finally the subject'srecognition of herself' (Rivkin and Ryan 302).
'Good' subjects consentto their subjection. However, 'this consent must be constantly wonand rewon, for people's material social experience constantlyreminds them of the disadvantages of subordination and thus posesa constant threat to the dominant class' (Fiske 310).
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Those subjectswhose experience teaches them that the 'natural order of things'is neither natural nor inevitable are 'bad' subjects, and they invitethe intervention of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA)-family,medicine, religion, the social sciences-which then attempt tocorrect and conform the 'bad' subject into a 'good' one. ISAs act asthe enforcers of ideology. That they exercise formidable correctivepower cannot be doubted; nevertheless, 'bad' subjects play a crucialrole in what Althusser postulates as a dynamic process as opposed toa static, hopelessly deterministic one.
'Bad' subjects, according toAntonio Gramsci in his theoretical enhancement of Althusser, opena gap in the edifice of ideology, a gap which allows for the insertionof a dissenting discourse or a dissenting mirror image, one whichthe subject can employ to construct an image of herself whichresists the call of ideology and issues its own 'call' to the subject.2Gass65Hegemony. Posits a constant contradiction between ideology and thesocial experience of the subordinate that makes this interface into aninevitable site of ideological struggle. In hegemonic theory, ideology isconstanly up against forces of resistance. Consequently it is engaged ina constant struggle not just to extend its power but to hold on to theterritory it has already colonized. (Fiske 310-11)The problem, for women (and all subjects), then, is one oflocation and recognition. 'Good' subjects locate themselves inideology and recognize themselves in the images presented to them byhegemonic discourse.
'Bad' subjects engage ideology in a struggleto wrest power from ideology and to stake a place for themselves.They take advantage of the gaps and fissures which ideology, likelanguage, cannot wholly encompass or foreclose. Therefore, eventhough one is never 'outside' ideology, just as one is neveroutside language, one can, nevertheless, make a space within ideologyand language which provides, if you will, a 'room of one's own'where the subject can resist the siren song of ideological power. Thesubject's struggle to define herself that normative callis the problem which Helena Parente Cunha explores in her novelWoman Between Mirrors; in it, a 'good' subject becomes a 'bad'one.
The woman learns that hegemony can be subverted, but itcannot be entirely escaped; she must learn to negotiate thedominant representations of her society before she can know herself.' Standing before her triple mirror, the woman in Helena ParenteCunha's novel, Woman Between Mirrors, cannot locate herself.Confronting her, a triple image, not one of which she fully recognizes.This woman, a true twentieth-centuryheroine, faces her divided selfand begins a quest which will end when she becomes an 'I' beforeher shattered mirrors. But before that can happen, she must authorherself, and, in the process of writing herself, she must overcome thedemons of location and recognition. In the material sense, thewoman must locate herself geographically, historically, socially, andphysically. Existentially, she must locate herself as an acting, functioning,speaking, unified 'I'unified, in the sense that she is recognizable'in her entirety'; in order to do that, she must recognize herself inthe multiple images of the mirror at the same time as she breaks themirror images which her society reflect back to her-to be able tosay 'I' becomes the object of her quest (Ellison and Lindstrom vi).2Published by New Prairie PressParente Cunha constructs the novel around two questions:'Who am I?' And 'Where am I?' And two images: mirrors andwindows.
Generally, 'Who am I?' And mirrors correspond to thewoman's quest for recognition; 'Where am I?' And windows correspondto her quest for location.
It is impossible, however, to separate thequestions and images into neat pairs; they interweave throughoutthe novel. The mirrors provide a dialectic, not between an essentialself and its antagonist but between ideology and its ISA psychology.' The window provides the subversive antithesis to ideology and itshandmaiden and aids in the deconstruction of the mirrors' dialectic.The quest for recognition begins before the mirror; actually,the title tells us that the woman is between mirrors, not 'before'them, even though it is clear that there is someone looking at herselfin the mirrors. The mirrors provide two images-the woman whocalls herself 'I' and 'the woman who writes me' (and I will refer toher by that phrase throughout this paper). 'The woman who writesme' is a creation of the 'I'; she might be called the 'I's' guiltyconscience or her rebellious alter ego.
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Nevertheless, the woman whoobserves these images is, as Fred P. Ellison and Naomi Lindstromsay in their translators' introduction to the novel, 'determined tosee herself in her entirety' regardless of the consequences (vi). Thetwo images engage in a dialogue in which each tries to justifyherself to the other and to the reader. The 'I' speaks as one whorecognizes herself in the dominant ideology of Bahian society-herfather, her husband, her sons have determined who she isthroughout her life, and she acquiesces to that ideology.
When 'the womanwho writes me' says to her, 'Your allure is the sick attraction of aghastly human rite in which you're the daily sacrifice,' she replies:I don't think life is a ghastly sacrifice. It depends on who does the living.In one person's case, a wart on a finger can turn into a catastrophe.Other people can be totally mutilated and it doesn't mean the end oftheir world. I don't think it's a massacre for my husband to want tofind dinner ready when he comes home from the office.
If I don't havean outside job, running the house should be my responsibility. Myfamily, my home, my infinity. Keeping things the way they should be,orderly, on time.
(Woman Between Mirrors 20-21) (Hereafter referredto by page number only.)4Gass: Where am I? The Problem of Location and Recognition inGassThe 'I' accepts the role of the 'angel of the house' as VirginiaWoolf put it. 'Keeping things the way they should be,' gives her asense of responsibility for the order of the house, and she acceptsher domestic role as part of the natural order of things. She locatesherself in what Susan Bassnett and others identify as one of 'thearenas of possible power open to women'-the home, theconvent, and the brothel ('Coming Out of the Labyrinth' 250). Shesubscribes to the myth that a woman's power is exercised withinthe walls of the home where she 'is the repository of all values,'the arbiter of civilized behavior who tames the barbarianimpulses of her husband and children. Jean Franco points out thatthis 'rigid confinement of women to private spaces' (the home,the convent, and the brothel) ensured the purity of women:The privatized and inward-looking Hispanic house and the fact thatthe virtual confinement of married women to the home had not onlybeen required by the Church but was also intended to ensure the purityof blood that Spanish society had imposed after the wars against theMoors.
Thus the mother's immobility is related to racism and to theprotection of inheritable property. The opposite term to the motheris the virgin-that is the nun who is pure and uncontaminated andwhose space is the convent. The negation of the mother and the virginis the whore, whosebody is open to all men. ('BeyondEthnocentrism' 507)Franco focuses specifically here on Latin American society, but thesame rules apply to Brazil, as the novel makes very clear.' ParenteCuhna's 'I' accepts without question her station.
Only later doesshe understand the economic, political, and cultural implicationsof her confinement.' The woman who writes me,' to the contrary, has spent her lifesaying 'no' to this order of things and acting out a rebellion againstthe 'I's' acquiescence. Whereas the 'I' accepts her role and her guiltwhen she fails to fulfill it, 'the woman who writes me' respondswith:And aren't you perhaps entitled to be impatient with your children, withyour sons who day by day are killing their mother? And why should youkeep cool when your husband's going after you? Nowadays, for someoneto be as subservient as you've gotten to be, the only reason is you've fallenprey to pathological guilt feelings.
You feel the need to punish yourselfYou know quite well that you didn't like your mother. You were jealousof her. (14)The 'I' rightly points out that 'the woman who writes me' hasfallen prey, herself, to a dominant ideologicalconstruct-psychology. When 'the woman who writes me' accuses the 'I' ofhaving 'pathological guilt feelings' and subconscious jealousy of hermother, she is mouthing the corrective discourse of a patriarchalISA which 'corrects' and 'analyzes' its subjects so as to help themconform to the ideology and to fit more willingly into the image itprojects. 'The woman who writes me' diagnoses the 'I's' malaise.' The woman who writes me' also acts out the rebellions that the'I' perhaps only imagined. But, her rebellions conform in manyways to behaviors prescribed by the dominant ideology.
Leavingthe house, she becomes the stereotypical 'whore'; she escapes theconfinement of the house, dresses inappropriately, and flirts withboys. Whether or not she is, in fact, a whore, the 'I' identifies 'thewoman who writes me' as one, aping her father's judgment. Whenthe 'I' retreats to her room to escape her family's oppression, whereshe imagines that she is free, she sees two images of herself-both ofwhich are assigned to woman by patriarchy-the wife and the whore:Who is that sultry provocativewoman in the mirror? Shelooks like her, the woman who writes me. I keep on dancing, in myred dress, clinging, plunging, slit up the side. I hardly recognize theimage that jumps out at me from the mirror. Whichone is for real?
This one, breaker crashing, facing me in the mirror,wouldn't blink at jumping into bed with a man she'd met just hoursbefore. Which is the real woman?
Which is flesh, which is blood? Theone who looks at me from the mirror, a smile from the other shore? Orthe one on this side, the good housewife and perfect mother,modestly dressed, just a touch of make-up? Where's the mask?
Onthe scrubbed clean face or on the one daubed with false colors? WhenI pile on the make-up, am I taking off my mask?
Or am I putting onmy mask, when I wash my face?. (25-26)Her freedom is an illusion; she recognizes herself as her father,husband, and sons see her, on the one hand, the demure housewife,on the other, the whore-neither identity holding the respect ofthe men who define her, for, as Bassnett points out, 'the mother10.4148/2334-4415.15936is perceived as a figure to be adored even though she issimultaneously despised for her femininity' ('Coming Out of theLabyrinth' 250). She will not and cannot become an authoring 'I'until she both recognizes and rejects these images as somethingimposed from without. To do so, she must first locate herself inthe mirrors, understand that the images reflected are constructedimages, and then turn away from the mirrors, open the windowsonto alternate discourses, and see herself for who and what she is.When the woman-the 'I'-sees herself as both thedemure housewife and the slatternly rebel, she is located in theonly space she can call her own-her corner of her bedroomin her husband's apartment. Here, she keeps those materialobjects which she considers make up her unique identity. Most aremementos of her childhood in Rio Vermelho; she says of them:These things are always there-here, inside me. Other things come andgo.
When I shut myself in my room, I shut myself inside my things,my belongings, things in my personal care, my notebooks of poetryand stories, the sketch of a novel, a few thoughts, no diary, I threw itaway. Among my things, I'm really me. My space and my time, withno ruler and no clock. Inner time frames of infinite extension.
Mychance to be free, when I am free. Near the window that opens to whatis closed in. And I remain suspended where I live. (50)In her room she believes, as we have seen, that she is free to 'be'herself. However, her room, like her body, which her husband crusheswith his revolting love-making, is not her own; it is not safe fromviolation. Her husband and sons invade it with impunity, just asher father had violated the privacy of her room in Rio Vermelhoand taken and read her diary.
Her father's violent response to herdiary (he beat her nearly to death) finds its counterpart in the boys'having found and read one of her notebooks: 'one day one of thenotebooks got into the hands of one of the boys, they all saw it,they all read it, even the boys' friends, at first my husband thoughtit was funny, then he got offended, he doesn't like my keepinganything from him, otherwise he can't trust me, how can he?' Herunique and private self is of no account, just as her privatebelongings are objects of ridicule to be paraded before her sons' friends. Shedoes not 'own' anythingleast of all herself; she is the property ofPublished by New Prairie PressStudies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Vol. 1 2005, Art. 5ST&TCL, Volume 29, No. 1 (Winter 2005)her husband and her sons; they may dispose of her and her materialpossessions as they wish.
Any attempt on her part to have a 'roomof her own' meets with fierce retribution. She must mirror theirvalues; she must prove herself trustworthy and hide nothing from herhusband. She must not have a private place in her husband's house.Even the windows in her rooms are not her own to open andlook out of.
In her father's house, she remembers, 'If my fatherwouldn't let me stand at the window watching the street and thepeople going by, often I'd start crying, and get punished for it' (58).Her father's house she recalls as a house of fear, and she wasfrequently forbidden to look out of the windows. The same might besaid of her husband's house and the window in her room that sheoften goes to for relief from the guilt and fear she feels.
When shegoes to her room, she says, 'This window is not the window of myroom, in my father's house. It's the window of my corner, in myhusband's apartment. This window opens me onto what'sclosing in. Like the other one. They're the same window. This one, onthe seventh floor of an apartment building in the Vitoria district.That one, in the townhouse in Rio Vermelho' (69). For so long asshe has no room or house of her own, she remains a captive of thepower of ideology (which I take to be the 'what's closing in').
Shemust look out the windows secretly, and the price of secrecy is guilt.The windows, as her husband and father suspect, also provide,however, the means by which she can locate herself, for they openout onto a world she does not know and has never experienced.What she sees from her window is a sacred mango tree, and a blackboy; what she feels is the soft breeze which carries on it thesensual smell of mangoes; what she hears is the sensual beat of theXang6 drums. The 'call' from the world outside which comeson the breeze through her windows tells her that there isanother material experience, perhaps even freedom for her. That 'call'threatens the security of ideology's power. Her cloisteredexistence-her material experience-tells her that conformity toideology leads to slavery, and at about the midpoint of the novel, shehas what can only be described as an epiphany. Her husband andsons have abandoned her. She is left alone looking out the window:I'm at home alone, looking out my window, night is falling amid thelast reflections of the sun on the panes of other windows of other10.4148/2334-4415.15938Gass71buildings, mirrors making up their own red suns, here at the windowwhere night is falling far from the violence of clocks and dates, mywindow above the sacred mango tree, who am I, the one who hid awayfrom the hours and the years?
Who am I here at the window, unable tosee things as they are, does my window open onto what has been closedfor all time? Mirror in the dark, with its memory of images that neverknew the light. (74)From this vision, she knows that she must face the truth, that she hashidden from the truth of her situation for her entire life, that 'thewoman who writes me' has lived an equal lie, and that she mustdo something to gain a self that she has never had. She says, 'Myslavery, useless. Her freedom, also useless.
Nothing led to anything.The mirrors are more and more being cleared of images. Uselessreflections that go skimming coldly over the smooth glass, vacuously.Nothing led to anything' (77-78). She has become a 'bad' subject.Through an ironic twist, the 'I' gains her freedom through herfather's inheritance.
She inherits enough money to purchase herown apartment-a true 'room of her own' because she has notonly a space of her own, but she also has the income to support it.That she gains her freedom through her father's inheritance servesto remind us that she is not, indeed cannot be, entirely freed of thepower of the dominant ideology. Nevertheless, as a 'bad' subject,cognizant now of the power of the images she has been confined by,the 'I' gains a degree of autonomy. She begins the process oflocating herself, not in her husband's or her father's houses, but in herown space. Her trials are not over, however; having located herselfin a space from which she can begin to speak as and for herself, shewill begin to author herself so that she may recognize herself in allher aspects.
Her first act is to declare her independence; she says:I'm going to come back down to earth. From now on I'm going to be freeof any sort of preconception. I need to enjoy the life I've been banishedfrom.
I'm going to continue creating my reality of independence in thesame way I invented my submission. I refuse to consider myselftiedto a total psychologicalcoherence and I proclaim the union ofopposites. (83)Her first act of recognition is to 'become' 'the woman who writesme'-with a difference. She rejects psychology; she rejects guilt. Sheembraces her body and its appetites. But she is, like 'the woman whowrites me' still under the power of the male's image of a woman.Her first lover turns out to be her husband's business associate andfriend, and although he is a more attentive and physicallyattractive lover than her husband, he is just another version of thehusband-he wants to keep his wife and have his mistress safely tuckedaway on the side-she must remain enclosed in her apartment. Shequickly learns her lesson, and for the first time in her life, she assertsherself, leaves her home and goes out on the town, makes friendsin the artist community, and expands her horizons.
Although sheis enacting the role of the 'free' woman, she learns from thisexperience; she discovers her body; she discovers a community ofartists whose interests reflect her own, and she discovers the seamyside of life. She begins to frequent 'places people used to avoid inher father's and her husband's time as only fit for riffraff, blacks,drunks, scum, that is, people of no account. Young ladies of goodfamily and self-respecting women have to know their place,' andstay away from such places (109). But, she asks, 'where is my place?'
I fit within many situations,I overflow in many directions. The light fromoff the crystal chandeliers fills my head with prisms, wraps my words incellophane. Primitive rhythm slips off my ancient bonds, releases mefrom earlier prisons. Little by little, I've been untying a knot, looseninga noose, unmeshing a net, finally there's nothing to tie me down. Mylimitless liberated body rushes out in unimaginable rivers, hurtles overbarriers I'd never even known were there. (109)Having escaped confinement and definition in her husband's house,she experiences excessshe 'overflows'; she exceeds the frames ofthe mirrors. She recognizes herself in othersothers whose bloodmingles with her ownthe Africans.
From her childhood on, shehas been mysteriously attracted to the mango tree and the youngblack boy who stood beneath it: 'El nit negro no solo representalo prohibido. Sino tambien representa lasexualidid, como casi siempre se ve asociado con los mangosmaduros, suculentos y jugosos' 'The black boy not only represents theforbidden. But he also represents sexuality,which is also seen as associated with the ripe, succulent, and juicymangos' (Beard, 'La Sujetividad Feminina' 302). Now sherecog10.4148/2334-443nizes the relationship that her father and her society have denied.Caught up in the freedom of the dance, she knows what she'salways intuited-her dark skin comes 'from a whitening of the colorsfrom Nigeria and the hot winds breathed out of Guinea' (111).Her discovery and recognition of her African slave heritage, thatsecret history which permeates the Bahian society into which shewas born, precipitates the untying of the knot of which she speaks.Recognizing her history frees her in a very fundamental way fromthe lie which has been her life. She undergoes initiation into therites of Xango; she chooses the ecstasy of the moment of unionwith the god Xango; she revels in her 'limitless body whichrushes out in unimaginable rivers, and hurtles over barriers' (111).5In the meantime, 'the woman who writes me' after havinggiven up her rebelliousness and become a docile, obedienthousewife, leaves her husband. But neither the 'I' nor 'the woman whowrites me' can free themselves entirely of the 'natural' order.
Theirsolitude and freedom are destroyed when the woman's son is shotand killed while trying to invade his mother's home, believing sheis sleeping with the black priest of Xango. The radio reportsinterpret the events: 'A deranged young man, from one of the old-linefamilies of our city, defending his mother's reputation, has lost hislife. The police have no clues. An appeal to the young man'sparents to come identify the body' (131). The threat to the dominantclass must be resisted; the radio report reinforces the dominantideology and reflects the image of a woman whose 'reputation' hasbeen threatened by a member of the lower, black classes. Thereport has its desired effect; the mother and 'the woman who writesme' are incapacitated by guilt.
Finally, they 'recognize' themselves:Our guilt brings us together. The rat smell drives out the scent thatcomes from the ancient mango tree. My face in the mirror is her face.I'm her. Shoulders sagging. Eyes to the floor.The intersection of me-with-her turned into me-with-me. The mirrors give off anintolerable glare.
I see more than I see. Bedrock.I write what I write. (132)The price of trying to forge an identity outside of ideology is veryhigh; one might think too high. But in order to write 'I,' the WomanBetween Mirrors had to face herself in all of her identities.
She had torecognize herself as a product of ideology; she had to find her place inthe ideology, and she had to find a way to carve out a space for herselfin opposition to that ideology. In order to do that, she has to acceptresponsibility for herself and her actions; she must accept the guiltshe feels for her son's death-after all she is responsible.
She must alsoaccept that she cannot be entirely free of ideology; it is too pervasive.Nevertheless, she does author herself, and the novel ends with release.Suddenly a lightning bolt streaks across the dark sky. The mirrors shatterinto a thousand pieces. On the floor, shards of mirror wet with blood.Wet with rainwater. A flicker of fire shoots skyward. I see an entire facein the shard of glass. A single face.
I can't identify the smell coming inon the wind. The gentle wind from out of the heavystorm.
(132)All births are accompanied by blood and water. The birth of the 'I'in Woman Between Mirrors is no less violent and no less symbolic.In fact, the entire novel, with its repetitions that give a ritualquality to the narrative, might be seen as a rite in which the 'I' 'calls upher own being-however fragmentary and faceted. Laura Beard hasobserved that 'The protagonist's endless submission and patientacceptance are drawn out in the structure of the text-I accepted, Iaccepted, I accepted-a litany evocative of a cathechism siclesson in church' ('The Mirrored Self' 107). The litany Beardidentifies-that of the Catholic Church-represents yet another of thepatriarchal discourses-an Ideological State Apparatus-that calledthe woman between mirrors to conform. But her acceptance givesway to another kind of litany-the litany of the drums, the wind,the mango tree. The beating of the drums conveys the rhythm of anincantation and the casting of a spell.
In the trance induced by the'son of Xango,' she repeats, 'I know where I am' (122-23). Havingfound herself, she understands that she must undergo an initiationor die: 'If you don't want to die, you have to begin your initiation.Or you'll pay for it later. Your fate, the road you'll take. You beginyour initiation. Or you'll die. My fate, the road I'll take' (123). Onceshe has chosen, 'Xango readies his lightening bolts' (129).
Thecrash of lightening which breaks the mirrors followed by cleansingby water, I suggest, breaks the spell cast by ISA's and inaugurates the12Gass75new woman.6Her birth shatters the mirrors of hegemonic ideology, but eachshard remains, nevertheless, a mirror, and she will knowideology's influence and seductive power always.
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