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Bildungsroman writing by women in Africa and in the African diaspora
(University of the Western Cape, 2023) Bivan, Amos Dauda; Sithole, Nkosinathi
The Bildungsroman has from inception traditionally been a male-dominated genre, but a number of significant women-authored novels written in the 20th century disrupt these established patterns. The thesis demonstrates how women authors of African descent are deconstructing, reappropriating, and reimagining the Bildungsroman genre to create space for black women protagonists in various geohistorical contexts. The thesis employs a critical framework that draws on concepts from Helen Tiffin's idea of counter-discourse narratives, as well as discourses on feminist criticism more generally. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, Maru by Bessie Head, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Beyond the Horizon by Amma Darko, and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are among the novels by African and African-American women writers analyzed for this study using such frameworks. As opposed to the individualistic male protagonists of traditional Bildungsromane, the texts examined in this thesis are found to demonstrate a sense of sisterhood instead of male heroic self-actualization. Instead of the Bildungsroman's typical story arc, which involves the development of a European young male character into adulthood these novels exemplify collective female experience.