The Unspoken Agony of Feminine Desire: Psychosexual Trauma and Womanist Resistance in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy

Background: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy is a significant womanist novel that examines the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, culture and patriarchal power. By placing female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) at its centre, Walker exposes it as a socially sanctioned form of gendered violence that controls female desire and silences women. Objectives: This paper analyses the physical, psychological and sexual consequences of FGM/C through Tashi, while examining Walker’s critique of patriarchy, cultural obedience, communal silence and the denial of bodily autonomy. It also explores how private suffering develops into womanist resistance. Methodology: The study adopts a qualitative and interpretative approach, using close textual analysis supported by scholarship on womanism, Black feminism, intersectionality, trauma studies and FGM/C. Recurrent images of the body, silence, memory, sexuality, motherhood and resistance are examined thematically. Findings: Walker presents FGM/C as both physical injury and enduring psychosexual trauma, affecting Tashi’s identity, sexuality, motherhood and memory. Her resistance ultimately challenges the silence sustaining oppressive tradition. Conclusion: The novel emerges as a powerful womanist critique of cultural domination, affirming women’s bodily autonomy, sexual dignity, psychological healing and right to self-representation.