Matrilineal Inheritance: Unearthing Subjugated Knowledge and Construction of Self in Paule Marshall’s Daughters

Résumé

The transmission of knowledge and the formation of selfhood within matrilineal structures represent a fecund yet underexplored nexus in feminist epistemology and postcolonial studies. This study posits that Paule Marshall’s Daughters offers a compelling literary terrain for excavating the epistemological significance of matrilineal inheritance, particularly concerning the unearthing of subjugated knowledge and their profound influence on the construction of female subjectivity. While existing scholarship has illuminated various facets of Marshall’s work, a focused philosophical examination of the epistemological weight of intergenerational matrilineal connections and their impact on self-formation within the specific sociopolitical context of the novel remains a desideratum. The central problem is that matrilineal inheritance, as depicted in the novel under consideration, functions as a crucial epistemological framework through which subjugated knowledge, often obscured by patriarchal and neocolonial forces are transmitted, thereby fundamentally shaping the protagonists’ understanding of themselves and their world. This engenders the ensuing pivotal interrogative: How do the intergenerational transmissions of matrilineal narratives, experiences, and wisdom in Daughters serve as epistemic pathways for the acquisition of knowledge and the subsequent construction of a resilient and nuanced sense of selfhood for the female characters? The objective of this study is to explicate the epistemological role of matrilineal inheritance in Daughters. This implies both identifying the specific forms of knowledge transmitted (historical, cultural, emotional, political) and analysing their influence on the protagonists’ evolving identities. To achieve this, it is relevant to adopt a hermeneutic-phenomenological methodology, drawing upon feminist epistemologies and postcolonial theory to interpret the narrative’s imbricated layers of personal experience, familial history, and sociopolitical context. This approach is pertinent as it allows for a nuanced understanding of how lived experiences and embodied knowledge, often marginalised within dominant epistemological frameworks, contribute to the formation of selfhood. However, its inherent interpretative feature requires a rigorous reflexivity to mitigate researcher bias, and its focus on individual or textual experience may preclude broader quantitative generalisations.  To conduct the current investigation, two major axes will be considered. The former examines the transmission of subjugated knowledge through matrilineal lines. This involves analysing the narrative instances where ancestral stories, cultural practices, and embodied wisdom are shared between mothers, daughters, and grandmothers, and how those transmissions challenge dominant historical narratives and epistemological paradigms. The latter focuses on the agency of the female characters in appropriating and integrating this inherited knowledge into their own self-construction. It also shows how the protagonists navigate the complexities of their identities in relation to their matrilineal heritage and the broader sociopolitical forces that seek to define them