Abstract

This study explores Zee Edgell's literary representations of women who challenge destructive gender ideologies in Belize, Central America. My analysis focusses on the roles women's bodies play in their oppression, resistance and transformations of consciousness. The aim is to discover where sexual and political issues intersect, parallel or reinforce each other in the novels. My findings are contextualized in the conclusions of recent empirical studies on women's conditions in Belize. Considering how knowledge is constructed in Belize's material reality exposes a mutual articulation of Edgell's textual issues and the prime socio-political concerns facing women in the country today. Furthermore, it yields the understanding that the nation's political history as a British colony and its nationalist movement in the late-twentieth century were visible forces in shaping both the social conscience and the private consciousness in modern-day Belize.