Subjectivity Gained, Subjectivity Lost in Melancholic Female Eunuchs in AliceWalker's Selected Novels

The volume deals with the reasons behind the melancholia of the selected female characters, Celie, Tashi, Mem, and Magdalena, in Alice Walker novels, The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, and By the Light of My Father’s Smile, and the ways these characters attempt to heal their melancholia; either successfully or not. Therefore, the study merges the notions of Julia Kristeva’s melancholic subject and Germaine Greer’s female eunuch to provide a new reading of melancholia. Moreover, the study explores Walker’s selected novels in light of Kristeva’s speaking subject to indicate how the use of language can make and unmake the characters’ subjectivity.