“매달린” 여자들: 서발턴, 목소리, 그리고 조이 하조의 시 (Women “Hanging”: Subaltern, Voices, and Joy Harjo’s Poetry)

This paper analyzes Joy Harjo’s poems, “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” in She Had Some Horses and “Strange Fruit” in In Mad Love and War, in terms of postcolonial feminism, particularly focusing on the concept of the subaltern. The two poems illustrate Harjo’s concern over and efforts for restoring marginalized and silenced voice of women of color in poetic representations. “The Woman Hanging” deals with a story of Native American women from Ojibwe due to the colonial relocation policy, which represents the history of the dispossessed and displaced Native Americans and other minorities as well. Inspired by and taking its title from Abel Meeropol’s same-titled anti-lynching poem, “Strange Fruit,” engages in a story of an African American activist, Jacqueline Peters who was lynched by KKK. Harjo’s poems suggest the possibility and agency of the subaltern who “can speak,” which answers Gayatri Spivak’s question, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

This paper analyzes Joy Harjo’s poems, “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” in She Had Some Horses and “Strange Fruit” in In Mad Love and War, in terms of postcolonial feminism, particularly focusing on the concept of the subaltern. The two poems illustrate Harjo’s concern over and efforts for restoring marginalized and silenced voice of women of color in poetic representations. “The Woman Hanging” deals with a story of Native American women from Ojibwe due to the colonial relocation policy, which represents the history of the dispossessed and displaced Native Americans and other minorities as well. Inspired by and taking its title from Abel Meeropol’s same-titled anti-lynching poem, “Strange Fruit,” engages in a story of an African American activist, Jacqueline Peters who was lynched by KKK. Harjo’s poems suggest the possibility and agency of the subaltern who “can speak,” which answers Gayatri Spivak’s question, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”