The Game of Gender: Dismantling liminality of religious identity in Alderman's The Power

Abstract

This study aims at dismantling Naomi Alderman’s The Power in terms of the internal and external deconstructive liminality. This liminality is represented through two focal points. The first is the dialectics between the pseudo-religious identity of the rising feminine power portrayed by Allie/ Mother Eve in its binary relationship with the declining secular pragmatic masculine image depicted by Tunde. The second is represented via the narrative in the paratextual elements: the epilogue, and the correspondence between the fictional author and editor of the novel. This multilayered investigation tackles the text from novel and thorough perspectives not previously explored. The analysis reveals that the spiritual manipulation is viciously exploited to achieve Allie’s machiavellian end of ultimate power. Addressing women’s pains around the world -of different religious doctrines- accelerates the rise and success of the Day of the Girls. However, it turns to be of worse nature than that of men dominance. This is revealed and discussed through the editorial correspondence between the author and the editor. In all, Alderman, through her dystopian novel, is not against women rights, but she provides a critique of the harmful use of power and that it is not a matter of male or female; it is not a gender issue, but a matter of balance between sources of power and dialectics of complementation not conflict; an end which echoes not only the gist of previous enquiries of the novel, but also the premises of reality.