Author(s)

Kokilavani Samalanathan, Hanita Hanim Ismail, Harwati Hashim

Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.

As feminism evolved and reshaped ideas on womanhood and its politics over the past three centuries, postmodernist writers seem to continuously present discriminated images of women in novels, including spy fiction. Unless it is properly addressed, these misrepresented images of women underlying its gender politics brings about questions on the effectiveness of gender education and its equality. This study problematized images of women in Fields’ Perfect Remains in order to understand the politics of domination between genders that suggest a continuous display of power. The analysis of the novel through the use of Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Framework, enabled the identifying images of women and ways in which dominance is exerted in the discourse. Analysis revealed that postmodern societies through the novelist’s lens continue to remain remote towards women. In a period, which celebrates women’s achievement and freedom of speech, where they are thought to be strong and independent, men continue to ironically exert different methods of power in the strive to maintain their status quo, which is revealed in this research. This study contributes to the existing body of literature in the field of women studies and literature where it identified the presence of male dominance even in this modern era. On another hand, it also explores aspects of domination which appear in the form of intellect as a new field of study.

Images of Women, Politics of Domination, Spy Fiction, Power Negotiation, Discourse Analysis

Samalanathan, K. , Ismail, H. and Hashim, H. (2020) Images of Women and Politics of Domination in Helen Fields’ “Perfect Remains”. Creative Education, 11, 2749-2766. doi: 10.4236/ce.2020.1112201.