Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (English)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9290

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Browsing by Subject "African literature"

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    Eros and politics: Love and its discontents in the fiction of Ng?g? wa Thiong�o
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Annin, Felicia; Moolla, Fiona
    In this study I focus on how Ng?g? wa Thiong�o�s fiction portrays his socio-political vision through the prevalence of the intimate relationships it displays. The study critically analyses the significant role romantic love and friendship play in the novels The River Between (1965), Weep Not, Child (1964), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1982), Matigari (1987) and Wizard of the Crow (2006) against the backdrop of Ng?g?�s other fiction, plays and non-fiction. Ng?g? identifies himself as a Marxist, anti-colonialist/imperialist, and anti-capitalist writer, for whom there is no contradiction between aesthetic and political missions. The aesthetic and political projects take form through the representation, very importantly, of romantic love in his fiction. The significance of eros, which is clear in the fiction, is not, however, present in Ng?g?�s theoretical reflections on his writing as formulated in his essays. In Ng?g?�s early novels, we see love attempting to break the boundaries of religion and class in the creation of a modern nation-state. But there are obstacles to these attempts at national unity through love, the only relationship apart from friendship that is self-made, and not determined by kinship relations. In the fiction from the middle of Ng?g?�s career, we see romantic love consummated in marriage. The achievement of unity is, however, undercut by betrayal, which is a repeated theme in all the novels. The �betrayal� of the ideal of romantic love by materialism is the most significant threat to love. Friendship emerges in one of the later novels as a kind of �excursus� to romantic love that foregrounds, by default, the ways in which Ng?g?�s political vision seeks be consolidated through the personal relationship of romantic love. In Ng?g?�s final novel, we see his personal and political visions coming together in a utopian erotic union for first time. Because of the nature of the exploration, which aims at opening up the wider significance of eros, the study is not framed by a dominant theory, most of which would lead to understanding eros through gender and power relations. Instead, the study has been framed through concepts and debates on romantic love that emerge in sociology, anthropology, philosophy and literary history.
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    Place, space and patriarchal femininities in selected contemporary novels by African women writers
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Steenkamp, Lize-Maree; Moolla, Fiona
    In much feminist literature, women�s spaces are analysed as constructive and supportive sites that may offer respite from patriarchy. However, women�s spaces are not inherently emancipatory. Through the socio-spatial dispersal of patriarchal power, places and spaces varying in scale � nations, cities, rural towns, private-public places and the home � can construct women who further the interests of men. Specifically, homosocial spaces, spaces where women interact with other women, can produce femininities that oppress other women by actively advancing patriarchal concerns. The selected primary texts consider spaces in regionally diverse but socially similar African contexts: Sefi Atta�s Swallow (2011) and Lola Shoneyin�s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi�s Wives (2010) are set in Nigeria, Miral al-Tahawy�s The Tent (1998) is set in Egypt, while Leila Aboulela�s Lyrics Alley (2010) is set in both Egypt and Sudan. I use the selected novels as cartographies for socio-geographical inquiry to establish how space and place construct patriarchal women. Literary spaces and places are studied from largest to smallest scale: The analysis of national spaces in the novels is followed by a study of urban and rural spaces, followed by private-public places, domestic place and, finally, at a micro-scale, the body-as-place. The analyses of these literary spaces will reveal the mechanisms by which patriarchal women are spatially produced, and may use space to oppress other women.