Power, Gender and Subjdugation: A Feminist Re-Reading of Sidney Sheldons “Rage of Angels”

This paper decodes and analyses Sidney Sheldon’s Rage of Angels through the feminist and subjugation theories. The paper critically analyzes the intersecting axes of gender, power, and moral conduct within capitalist and patriarchal structures. The study focuses on Sheldon’s narrative strategies about the image of the modern woman, implying Jennifer’s professional and emotional trauma within the frameworks of liberal, radical, Marxist, psychoanalytic, and postmodern feminism. The paper also projects the subjugation theories of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Deniz Kandiyoti to reveal the control, performative patriarchy, and gender performativity. Drawing upon textual proof and intense reading, the study locates Sheldon’s popular fiction within contemporary feminist discourse, asserting that Rage of Angels withstands both a critique and a symptom of systemic ostracizing of female in modern capitalist society.

Subjugation; Gender performativity; capitalist society, vulnerability, feminist discourse.

1. Beauvoir, Simone de. 1949. The Second Sex. Translated by H. M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Cixous, Hélène. 1975. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Signs 1 (4): 875–893. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989 (1): 139–167. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Haraway, Donna. 1988. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies 14 (3): 575–599. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Hooks, Bell. 2000. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Irigaray, Luce. 1985. This Sex Which Is Not One. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1988. “Bargaining with Patriarchy.” Gender and Society 2 (3): 274–290. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Millett, Kate. 1970. Sexual Politics. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review 30: 61–88. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Moi, Toril. 1985. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Nicholson, Linda J. 1990. Feminism/Postmodernism. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Sheldon, Sidney. 1980. Rage of Angels. New York: William Morrow and Company. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• The Dynamic of Religious Pluralism and Cultural Identity in Rongmei Naga (Kabui) Society
• Effects of Social-Economic Empowerment of Teenage Mothers and Nurture Care. A Case of Kimbilio Hope Centre, Machakos, Kenya
• Gendering Caste and Casteing Gender: A Study of Social Sickness in Uma Chakravarti’s Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens
• Counselling as Social Work for Women Empowerment in Akwa Ibom State: A Case Study of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. Implications for Counsellors
• Motherhood: Inclusion and Containment, A Case Study