Politics of Agency in The History of Mary Prince
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central Department of English
Abstract
The History of Mary Prince explores into the experiences of a slave woman
who is repeatedly sold, victimized and used as sex partner by white masters. Account
on her autobiographical description reveals that she is forced to suffer throughout her
life due to the extreme forms of domination, brutality, extortion and biases. Despite
the resistance and protests, she is unable to get freedom until she willingly sells
herself to the service of Thomas Pringle, the white editor. However, Prince has an
agency that she appears as the master of her story which comes in her own first person
point of view. The text not only reiterates colonial assumptions but also the traditional
patriarchy, compasses subaltern and bourgeois class consciousness. This feminist text
focuses on women characters trapped in the social and cultural problematic voicing
their frustration voices for social change. Thus, this thesis tries to show how the historical and cultural determination of
gender complicates those of race, which crates the new humanity through building a
national identity, promote national culture and allow for a process of perpetual
renewal. So, for innumerable times, Mary Prince represents the extreme form of
colonial exploitation imposed upon a slave woman. Her continuous resistance against
colonial domination to achieve her own state of self-determination, decolonization,
agency and freedom makes her story not only a feminist text but a typical slave
narrative that cuts across the boundaries of gender, race and nation.