Discursive (Re) Construction of Black Femininity: Venus from Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

One of the striking plays by a black female writer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Venus is analyzed through Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) in this study. Inspired by a brutal historical reality, Parks (re)positions black women in the patriarchal and racist system. Her black woman, Venus, is objectified through her body, while she also struggles to be the subject of her own inner world. Focusing on the playwright’s discourse, this study sheds light on the complex relationship between discourse and gender through FCDA. Its main concern is that gender is discursively constructed based on ideological and political factors. It claims that discourse justifies and perpetuates gender-based discrimination, resulting in strengthening the patriarchal system at a linguistic level. Based on FCDA’s principles, this study infuses that Parks’s discourse of positioning the black female body as an object of male domination is constructed to reflect power relations, which systematically oppress black women. Relatedly, this study suggests that Parks’s discourse in Venus illuminates the pervasive nature of the objectification and exploitation of the black female body and dismantles historical and societal realities through the systemic oppression and marginalization that black women have faced. By exposing these deep-rooted power imbalances based on white hegemony and patriarchy, Parks’s discourse challenges the longstanding societal norms that have subjugated black women for centuries.