Female Subjectivity in Mohja Kafh’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

The feminist movements have echoed the spirit of gender equality in many aspects, politics, education, economic, social, and culture. However, some restrictions of women’s freedom in voicing their thoughts still exist. Women have to struggle in both domestic and public domains. Women have limited access in improving their capacities. This is related to the patriarchal system which put women at a disadvantage. Some deep-rooted patriarchal systems include discrimination against women, marginalization of women and subordination of women. These problems lead to women’s effort living under patriarchal system. This article also demonstrates how the main female character shows her struggle in expressing her subjectivity through two ways, resistance and negotiation within the patriarchal system. The ways result in many forms of responses. The female character experiences support as well as challenges from the people around her. The challenges result from the dominance of patriarchy exerted by the family members. In addition, American situation as the contextual background also influence the ways the main female character shows her subjectivity. In this sense, the complexities of the background affect the main female character’s subjectivity. From these points, the study argues that the female character shows the dynamic and unfinished formation of female character’s subjectivity where the patriarchal system can be challenged.