Her Liberty: black womanhood subjectivity and gender relations in Ruby (2017), dy Cynthia Bond

Abstract

The following research has as main objective to discuss questions about the gender and race involved and debated in the novel Ruby (2017), homonymous title based in the name of the main protagonist in the work of the North American writer Cynthia Bond. Letting it known, with the methodology used in semiotics’ theory, since the first step of the generative path of the sense of Greimas, using the Semiotic Square, suggested for Barros (2005), about the minimum semantic oppositions at the deepest level to analyse Ruby, the book’s main protagonist, in a way to discuss about the duality of the Saint and the Whore lived and approached in this novel. Therefore, the theoretical framework is composed by the studies about the black feminism of Hooks (2019; 2020) and Davis (2016), as so the United States Racism of Morrison (2018). As results, the form of a marginalized protagonist by the Liberty citizens, as subdued by the white companions when run away to New York. As finals considerations, presented by the oppressive tools that convince Ruby that she’s actually would never ever stop being a whore, progressively maintaining the racial stereotypes, that deny the black woman and their own subjectivity and existence.