"Wickedness is a woman" : exploring female agression in Opal Palmer Adisa's It Begins with Tears and Marie-Elena John's Unburnable</em>

Abstract

This essay analyzes the depictions of woman-on-woman violence in two influential novels by Caribbean women writers, It Begins with Tears by Opal Palmer Adisa and Unburnable by Marie-Elena John. Focusing on these primary texts, the essay examines how Adisa and John boldly portray female characters as both victims and perpetrators of various forms of aggression against other women. These include the use of indirect aggression through malicious gossip, as well as shocking depictions of physical violence and sexual assault. It analyzes the range of factors that motivate this woman-on-woman violence, such as jealousy over male partners, internalization of patriarchal norms, racial and class hierarchies, childhood trauma, and more. It argues these unsettling depictions shatter idealistic stereotypes of universal female solidarity. Ultimately, by giving voice to the darker complexities of female relationships and psyches, the essay asserts these novels expose how the oppressive legacies of colonialism and gender-based violence have been insidiously inherited and perpetuated, at times even erupting among women within their communities.