Full Description
Captive is a chapbook of vignettes that explores the feminine
condition through the lens of Melissa. She questions her body, her
longings, her thoughts and even her existence in a patriarchal society
where both men and women look at the female body as an object that can
be owned.
Melissa, the protagonist is an adolescent who navigates in other names
Mel and Veronica as her context conditioned her to limitations. Despite
all trauma, Captive invites us to empower and celebrate womanhood
instead of being shamed, victimized and silenced.
The structure of Captive is marked by a blend of prose and free verse
poetry. The language demarcates itself from the repressive patriarchal
language. The poetic tone as well as the shifts from English to French
and even to Mauritian Creole reflects the Ecriture Feminine. The rupture
or even the blanks altogether express a language free from repression
where even silence speaks louder than words and contemplates vivid
imaginations.
