Xu, Wenying

Ecofeminist theory exposes the androcentric monopoly of meaning-making and
its resulting oppression of women, people of color, and the earth. Because women have
been marginalized in historical and religious discourses, these theorists emphasize the
need for women to develop an alternative, inclusive worldview that rejects binary,
hierarchical thought. Like feminist theorists, Contemporary American women writers
have also tackled the patriarchal oppression of Christianity and the omission of
women's historical contributions in their fiction. In their works, authors like Toni
Morrison, Linda Hogan, and Julia Alvarez have reimagined women's history by
fictionalizing historical events. Despite racial differences, all three authors similarly
detail the oppressive nature of the patriarchal worldview, reject binary thought, and
utilize goddess figures as catalysts for awakening female consciousness. By detailing
the characters' shift in consciousness, these novels act as a form of consciousnessraising
for their readers, and can therefore be considered activist texts.

This thesis argues that postcolonial women are doubly oppressed under colonialism and patriarchy. In many instances, women's acts of resistance are overlooked through discursive practices that erroneously portray women as passive victims. In order to correct this misrepresentation of women, Michelle Cliff chronicles women's oppression as well as their numerous acts of resistance in Abeng and No Telephone To Heaven. Cliff, thus, ruptures the colonial and patriarchal myths that render women powerless. Central to this thesis, is the argument that the liminal space is critical for empowerment and resistance. Liminality allows an individual to occupy two diverse worlds creating what Homi K. Bhabha calls a "Third Space." This Third Space offers migrant subjects such as Michelle Cliff a good vantage point from which to observe and record the oppression and resistance of the colonized. The thesis utilizes postcolonial theory to explicate the fragmented and contradictory experience of the colonized.