Women's Voices in Selected Poems of Joy Harjo: A Feminist Study

Abstract

The study investigates three chosen poems by Joy Harjo that touch upon the lack of submissiveness and powerlessness that women experience rights. In “The Woman Hanging from the thirteenth Floor Window”, Harjo presents woman, caught in between staying stuck tied to family or making out a hopeless form of freedom. Whereas “Fire” urges women to speak up in which they try to demonstrate strength, and the latter "I Am a Dangerous Woman" draws upon the oppression of women and the destruction of nature under patriarchal dominance, especially from the perspective of a Native American woman who is attacked on all sides for being a woman and Native. Analyzing image and collective voice in relationship to so-called "feminine" characterizations of power as represented through imagery, the critical framework for this project draws on feminist theory and investigates how Harjo subverts oppressive structures with hope of reclamation of Indigenous women as visible cultural agents. The results indicate that in these three poems, Harjo progresses from depicting women's pain and captivity to celebrating their ability to struggle and resist collectively so that ultimately the voice of women is shown as a source of cultural and political resilience.