body

"Another means by which the writers of contemporary narratives of slavery talk about cultural appropriation is by focusing on the physical appropriation of the slave's body" (Rushdy 101).

The commodified body is a theme that pervades both earlier and neo slave narratives. The body is often tortured, beaten, mutilated, even raped.

the Body in Kindred Alice's father is beaten The patroller attempts to rape Dana Sarah's children, Sam, and Tess are sold, among others Dana is beaten Alice, Sarah, and Tess are raped  Rufus tries to rape Dana

Even the children are raised in a world in which they view themselves as commodities:

"The little girl turned to frown at him. 'I'm worth more than two hundred dollars, Sammy!' she protested. 'You sold Martha for five hundred dollars!'" (Butler 99).

Dana will be constantly marked by slavery, by the loss of the arm that still remains in the past, clutched in Rufus's possessive grasp.


But Dana also manages to reclaim her self, her body, her voice, her lineage, and her future.

"Turning the language of commodification against itself (from the value of a slave to human value), turning scar tissue into flesh recovered by intimacy, are but a few of the ways that these artists show that the body is not only brutalized but reclaimed" (Rushdy 102).