Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-301).

The study examines, from a feminist point of view, the stereotypic image of woman in Xhosa prose fiction from pre-literate times to the era of written literature (1909 - 1980). Attaching feminist critical theory to conventional literary characterisation gives this pioneering study a human dime,n sion that is bound to rejuvenate traditional critical appredation and highlight the tremendous power of art to reflect or parallel real-life experiences. Consequently, the study transcends the confines of traditional literary criticism. It throws interdisciplinary light on the African feminist dilemma over the past 70 years while focusing on gender stereotyping as a characterisation technique. Chapter 1 clearly demarcates the scope of study and the critical position adopted, while chapter 2 traces stereotypes back to Xhosa folk-tales. In this way, an interesting link or parallel in stereotyping between oral and written literature is highlighted. It is worth pointing out that Chapter 3 is significant in that no women writers' works produced in the first and the second decades have survived. The male writers of the period describe women in strict stereotypic fashion, without fear of contradiction, from Woman as Eve to Woman as Witch, among other archetypal images. The female stereotypic image in the third and the fourth decades, the role of the first two female novelists and the early seeds of female. resistance to male domination, are discussed. in Chapter 4 while Chapter 5 highlights the depiction of female characters by male and female prose writers in the Fifties, culminating in Mzamane's exposure of glaring anti-female social norms and practices. In Chapter 6 the spotlight is cast on the woman of the Sixties and the rise of active resistance to male dominance. Some contemporary women, as pointed out in Chapter 7, have crossed the Rubicon in diverse ways. They are assertive, independent, proactive and relentlessly opposed to male dominance. Chapter 8 sums up the main points in relation to the Xhosa woman's attitude towards Western feminism: while many Xhosa women feel justifiably unhappy about male dominance, they refuse to let their frustrations affect their unity with men in the greater struggle against racism. Although the study concludes on an anti-climactic note for Western feminists, it focuses on this crucial and unique distinction between Western and black feminism.

No description available.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Claire L. Dehon / Francophone Literature from Sub-Saharan Africa is an important indicator of the extent of the awakening by African people to their realities that link them to the past and the present. Novels of prominence written from the sixties to the nineties demonstrate how well their authors appreciate the characteristics of their societies. In this respect, some African writers such as Mongo Beti, Regina Yaou and Emmanuel Dongala in their respective works The Suns of Independence by Ahmadou Kourouma, Perpétua and the Habit of Unhappiness by Mongo Beti, and Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala offer very different characters, but with the same basic function of showing the African readers how poorly women have been treated in the past and today, and that without improving women's plight couldn't fulfill its role of protection, or nurturing towards its members. I will talk first about the submissive woman. Second, I will focus on the willingness of woman. Third, women in African society and then I will focus on Perpetua and the female characters in Perpetua and the Habit of Unhappiness by Mongo Beti. At the end of my study, I would lay the emphasis on the character of Laokole in Johnny Mad Dog.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-507). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Doctoral)--Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle Paris III. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [1237]-1260).

Thesis (Doctoral)--Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle Paris III. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [1237]-1260).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2002. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-507).

Starting with a broad attempt to define the general concerns in African literature, and the cultural esthetics which form the basis of this writing, this thesis tries to place the emerging East African literature in English into the stream of African literature, and of literature at large. It focusses particularly on the works of Okot p'Bitek and James Ngugi and treats broadly the themes emerging from the East African environment and the artistic challenges which these themes pose to the writer. It concludes that meaning and strength in this emerging literature will stem from the writers' awareness and sensibility to their environment and a willingness to make an honest and artistic appraisal of this situation. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis proposes to study comprehensively the contribution of Buchi Emecheta to African literature and to the debate over feminism and African and black women. Chapters one and two are a background to the investigation of Emecheta's fiction. They examine the work of selected African female and male novelists in order to assess the representation of he African woman in the novel and her role and place in a changing society. The writings of women are considered in relation to women's priorities and the orientation of the African novel itself. The notion of protest as a rhetorical device is considered in Chapters three and four. They chart Emecheta's condemnation of patriarchal ethics in four of her novels. The awakening and growth in consciousness of her heroines is studied in detail in Chapter four which also considers the novelist's interest in national questions. Chapters five and six discuss the attitudes of African/black women towards feminism as practised in the West and how it is reflected in the positions of Emecheta and some other African female writers; how this is perceived in the writing of black women in Britain and of representative African-American novelists and critics. Lesbianism and radical separatism are discussed, as is the womanist alternative. While Chapter five is fundamentally theoretical, Chapter six traces the evolution of Emecheta's own views by way of her first two novels of the early seventies and the latest one published in 1989. Language and style are under consideration in Chapters seven, eight and nine. Chapter seven is concerned with placing Emecheta within the debate about literatures in African languages. Chapter eight deals with stylistic developments in Emecheta's fiction in terms of narrative strategy and the source from which she constructs the figures in her prose. The presentation of speech is scrutinized in chapter nine as part of realism, which entails an examination of the function of proverbs and Pidgin English in the novels.