Visual Hegemony and Resistance: Race, Gender, and Gaze in Jasmine Ward’s Let Us Descend

Visual Hegemony and Resistance: Race, Gender, and Gaze in Jasmine Ward’s Let Us Descend

Authors

  • Jing Tan School of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou Commerce College, Guangzhou 510530, Guangdong, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53469/jsshl.2025.08(02).05

Keywords:

Let Us Descend, Gaze, Visual hegemony, Anti-gaze

Abstract

By applying the theory of “gaze” and combining feminism and racism, this article delves into how black women in Let Us Descend deconstruct and reshape their subject identities amidst complex power relationships, racial discrimination, and gender inequality. In a white dominated social structure, Annis underwent a transformation from a passive object to an active subject, which was achieved through her anti-gaze strategy, which helped her resist both internal and external oppressive forces psychologically and physically. In addition, the article also examines how Ward uses literary narratives to guide readers to deeply reflect on racial issues in American history, thereby inspiring sympathy and support for oppressed black communities, further reflecting the author’s profound vision of exploring social reality with humanistic care.

References

Chen Rong. Gaze [M]//Zhao Yifan, Zhang Zhongzai, et al. Key Words in Western literary Theory. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006.

Butler, J. Merely Cultural[J]. Social Text ,1997.

Foucault, M. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison[M].New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

Ward, J. Let Us Descend [M]. New York: Scribner, 2023.

Fanon, Franz. Black Skin, White Masks[M]. Wan Bing, translated. Nanjing: Yilin Publishing House, 2005.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing [M]. Dai Xingyue, translated. Nanning: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005.

Qian Junxi; Zhang Han. Imagination, Performance and Power: the Construction of “otherness” in Tibet’s tourism process [J]. Journal of Tourism Studies, 2016 (06).

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Published

2025-02-28

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Section

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