24 pages • 48 minutes read
Elizabeth AlexanderThe Venus Hottentot
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Body Parts
Alexander uses body parts to stand in for the whole person (See: Literary Devices). In Baartman’s life, the mistreatment of her body reflects the racism she experienced. She was objectified and starved. Her early death reflects the theft of her freedom and mistreatment of her body because of its Blackness. In death, her body parts are displayed with a complete disregard for her humanity. Cuvier’s “rotting teeth” (Line 113) reflect the destruction caused by his vile words when he is arguing for scientific racism. Alexander underscores how this display of body parts is dehumanizing when Baartman wishes that Cuvier’s heart would be displayed to show his corruption. This body part will reveal how he is “deformed, unnatural” (Line 122). His heart, usually symbolic of intentions and feelings, reveals his ill-intent and cruelty.
When she reclaims her body, however, the body parts she names are her “mouth, larynx, [and] brain” (Line 103), all associated with speaking and intelligence. She mentions her “flexible tongue” (Line 11) and “healthy mouth” (Line 112) in contrast with Cuvier’s “rotting teeth” (Line 113), emphasizing her identity as a polyglot and a truth speaker. And her beauty, as expressed in her own words, centers on her lanolin-conditioned hair, which is adorned with “gold leaf” (Line 107) and “diamonds” (Line 108). (It is worth noting that Alexander mentions these native natural resources of South Africa: both the mining of gold and diamonds contributed significantly to the early South African economy, but also brought a European gold rush, wars, and colonial expansion to the area). The speaker reconstructs her own body in the final stanzas, if only in her mind’s eye, to focus more on how the body is tied to the riches and beauty of its native land, communicating personal strengths rather than passive sexuality.
Museums and Exhibitions
Museums and exhibitions are used to stand in for how Black bodies are always on display. Baartman’s “public” (Line 100) genitalia are kept “in the Musée / de l’Homme on a shelf” (Lines 21-22). For almost 150 years, her body was on display for visitors to view. During her performances, she displays her body for “citizens who stare and query” (Line 54). The visible difference of a Black person’s skin in Europe, meant that they are always being displayed and examined as exotic. Alexander criticizes this practice by having Baartman wish it upon Cuvier. She would like his heart to be kept “on a low / shelf in a white man’s museum / so the whole world could see” (Lines 118-120). By terming it “a white man’s museum” (Line 119), she draws attention to the racial aspect of this display.
Silence and Speech
The motifs of silence and speech recur throughout the poem. As noted earlier, the poem features two speakers, with Cuvier given the first words of the poem, and the unnamed Baartman speaking in the second, longer section. In contrast to Baartman, Cuvier does not struggle to be heard; instead, he confidently “crowd[s]” (Line 14) notebook pages with his words, displays his work (her body) in museums, and his research on “national character” (Line 18) is respected in the scientific community for generations. Baartman, on the other hand, can only imagine being heard. She is the recipient of stares, pokes, and prods, she responds to cues shouted by “a professional / animal trainer” (Lines 64-65), and according to Cuvier, she has a scent he does not like.
However, in line 82, the poem shifts towards her speech. The speaker emphasizes three times in repetition, “I speak // English. I speak Dutch. I speak / a little French as well” (Lines 82-84): I speak, I speak, I speak. She also notes that she knows languages beyond the comprehension of the European scientist, giving her knowledge of both European and African cultures. This range of speech expands even further at the mention of her “Xhosa / clicks” (Lines 110-111) and her “flexible tongue” (Line 111). The speaker insists on being more than a body. But, she has been silenced in her captivity and exploitation, and Alexander uses the image of the “wordless Odalisque” (Line 109) to illustrate the stereotype Baartman is forced to fit for her European audiences. The symbol of the Odalisque, which in French usage came to symbolize a silent concubine in a harem, was extremely popular in French art and literature of the 19th century. Always partially nude or exotically dressed, the Odalisque was often posed as an object for the male gaze and played heavily into the growing Orientalism of France at this time. Alexander uses this symbolism to highlight the multiple ways Black women, African women, and Middle Eastern women (and all colonized populations) were silenced and objectified by Western culture, and how the struggle to be heard—to tell one’s own story—remains a crucial means of reappropriating power from an oppressor.
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