feminist essay

[OnlyWantsOne]

Feminism and post-colonial theory have much in common but issues of gender are often ignored in discussions of post-colonial and esepecially African literatures. Discuss.

well?

Cheeky!

is this for a literature course?

yep

i have a tiny baby, a snotty 4 yr old and looming deadlines

[hides under books]

okay, well unfortunately I have an Eng lit degree but didn't cover post colonial theory in African lit. What books are you using?

achebe's things fall apart - doing close analysis of that

plus the one above

arrrrrgh!!!!!!!!

ohhhh fantastic! sounds right up my street. I'm on baby duty at the moment, so can't do long posts but shall have a think.

Off the top of my head, have a look at Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's novel "The River between" - quite shocking (to modern, western sensibilities) attitudes towards FGM and rape.

By contrast, Anita Desai's "Feasting Fasting" is far more sympathetic to the plight of women in the developing world.

There's a line of argument to be taken (and Ngugi would be good to this too) that women, especially white women, represent the colonialists - Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, Karen Blixen, "she" of H Ridder Haggard, etc - and that the post-colonial writers are trying to re-claim their manhood which had been surrendered to foreign women. [NOTE: not my argument I hasten to add]

However, you could challenge the premise and say "where are the women in other post-colonial literatures?" i.e. saying it's not just an African thing

The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith - Keneally (Australia), plus anything by Narayan (India) or Naipaul (Trinidad) are devoid of genuine, developed female characters that aren't bit players. On the other hand J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)(especially in "Disgrace") is far more sympathetic of women and aware of the challenges they face in a post-colonial world.

Might I put forward the Heart of Darkness by Conrad. That's got some woman stuff but plenty of geographical/historical info.