No description available.

No description available.

During my eight years of work in the communication department of an NGO based in Kampala I have undetaken several workshops organized by istitutional donors, such as USAID, on how to write what the aid sector calls stories of change.  Puzzled by the information and skills obtained in such context and the stories I have encounter and wrote during my job from one side, and on the other side acknowledging how novels helped me to navigate my feeling of disorientation while living and experiencing the Ugandan context; I have decided to embark in this research to better understand where the stories produced by INGOs and the contemporary literature differentiate.  This research involves shedding light on the differences, both in narrative construction and their impact on readers, between modern and significant literary works, like novels and stories originating from the aid industry (INGOs). To this end, the investigation embraces three distinct sources: the novels “We Need New Names” and “Americanah,” along with a concise web-based tale released by USAID. The ultimate goal of the research is to explore the power of storytelling in shaping collective imaginaries.  To unravel the interconnection between narrative potency and collective immaginaries, this study centers on the portrayal of Black Women. It draws upon the insights of Postcolonialism and Black Feminism, while exploring pivotal concepts such as Representation, Voice, and Stereotype. The study employs content analysis and reflect on complexity of character depiction. The findings reveal that well-crafted characters in literature can challenge stereotypes associated with African women. Characters like Darling (We Need New Names) and Ifemule (Aamericanah) are portrayed with depth and complexity, offering a comprehensive and multifaceted representation that defies monolithic stereotypes. In contrast, the character Aberu (USAID webstory) lacks such depth, perpetuating limited views of African women.  Furthermore, the research also highlights the potential of round characters to engage readers on multiple levels, prompting changes in perspective. Ultimately, the study concludes that storytelling has immense power to shape perceptions and calls for crafting narratives that promote inclusive and authentic portrayals of African women. The research enabled me to identify the differences between storytelling on Black women of the ‘development industry’ and storytelling on Black women in the literary field, opening a reflection on the importance to engage with narratives and media.  Differences highlighted the need for INGOs to reassess their storytelling methods. Drawing inspiration from contemporary African literature may provide valuable insights and strategies to foster more authentic, complex, and nuanced representations of Black women.

This study analyses two non-western novels used in the subject of Swedish in upper secondary school: Fatou Diomes The Belly of the Atlantic and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Half a Yellow Sun. Looking at how the books female main character relate to Stuart Halls theory of cultural identity, I come to the conclusion that they somewhat differently relate to an essential ”authentic” self. Salie talks explicit about a generic African soul that she possesses. Olanna never talks about anything ”authentic”, but her narrative and contrary subject positions can be read as a way of demasking her European ”white” self in favour of a truer Igbo self. I also come to the conclusion that both novels use themes of alienation related to gender structures and positioned westernness and that this kind of reading could contribute to interesting classroom discussions about a dynamic interpretation on culture and identity.

This thesis project examines the work of three female Nigerian authors: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta and Chika Unigwe. They are part of a growing number of young African writers who are receiving international acclaim and challenging narratives that have long defined the continent in pejorative terms. They question what it means to be female and African in a transcultural, global world but counter discourses that are both restrictive and prescriptive. Their female characters are not imaged in binary terms as either victims or villains. For all three writers, the African story has to be told in its entirety incorporating what some may argue are negative stereotypes but doing so in a manner that examines and undermines those same stereotypes. For the purposes of the thesis, I focus on their first novels: Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Atta’s Everything Good Will Come and Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street. Chapter One examines Purple Hibiscus and argues that the novel is much more than a coming of age story or, as some critics have posited, an allegory of the postcolonial state. Chapter Two highlights Atta’s use of fairly familiar feminist theories but grounds them in the lived realities of the African city. All three authors are concerned with issues of violence and death. Unigwe’s novel, which forms the focus of Chapter Three, offers a critical perspective on how both of those themes intersect with the increasing commercialisation of global culture. Her characters are female sex workers whose lives are irrevocably altered by the murder of one of their colleagues. I conclude by arguing that the three novels offer a nuanced if not necessarily new understanding of the various social, economic and political forces that continue to shape the lives of women on the continent.

Text in English with abstracts and keywords in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / Beyond the African boundaries, the black body is marked with an othered identity that often leaves its bearer open to discrimination. Being black is considered a transgression because, presumably, it constitutes deviance from a particular skin pigmentation, spatial norm and cultural practice. This dissertation examines the depiction of people of colour, particularly blacks, as transgressive bodies and invaders of space. From a postcolonial perspective, it investigates the racial implications of blackness by reason of migration. This study draws on a critical analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime (2016) to investigate the intersection of identity, race and spatial zones as thematic concerns in both texts. I contend that despite the fact that race is a social construct, it continually has an impact on the individual living of blacks in the space they inhabit or where they exist. They are burdened by the negativities generated by their colour, consequently perceiving themselves as deviants from the norm. Unlike Adichie’s other novels, the theme of migration is more profound in Americanah to reflect the intense consequences of race for African migrants in the western world. Therefore, I seek to establish that the stereotyping of Africans owing to their racial and cultural differences forces them to alter their identity in order to be recognised and accepted. In the same regard, the study projects Trevor Noah’s holistic representation of displacement both within self and community. More insightful is the writer’s engagement of body politics as a propeller for socio-economic issues. These issues explored in both texts ultimately present a (re)imagining of people of colour within the othered zones. / Buite die Afrikagrense word die swart liggaam gemerk met 'n gemarginaliseerde (“anderste”) identiteit wat die draer dikwels ooplaat vir diskriminasie. Swartwees word as 'n oortreding beskou, want dit is vermoedelik 'n afwyking van 'n bepaalde velpigmentasie, ruimtelike norm en kulturele praktyk. Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek die uitbeelding van mense van kleur, veral swart mense, as oortredende liggame en indringers van die ruimte. Vanuit 'n postkoloniale perspektief ondersoek dit die rasse-implikasies van swartheid as gevolg van migrasie. Hierdie studie neem as uitgangspunt die kritiese analise van Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie se Americanah (2013) en Trevor Noah se Born a Crime (2016) om die interseksie van identiteit, ras en ruimtelike sones as tematiek in albei tekste te ondersoek. Ek beweer dat, ondanks die feit dat ras 'n sosiale konstruk is, dit voortdurend 'n impak het op die individuele leefwyse van swart mense in die ruimte waarin hulle woon of waar hulle bestaan. Gevolglik word hulle belemmer deur negatiewe aspekte wat deur hul kleur gegenereer word, en hulself gevolglik as afwykers van die norm beskou. Anders as haar ander romans, is Adichie se migrasieprobleme meer diepgaande in Americanah om die intense gevolge van rassekwessies vir Afrika-migrante in die Westerse wêreld te weerspieël. Daarom wil ek vasstel dat die stereotipering van Afrikane weens hul rasse- en kulturele verskille hulle dwing om hul identiteit te verander om erken en aanvaar te word. In dieselfde verband projekteer die studie Trevor Noah se holistiese voorstelling van verplasing binne die self en die gemeenskap. Meer insiggewend is die skrywer se betrokkenheid by liggaamspolitiek as 'n voorstuwer vir sosio-ekonomiese kwessies. Hierdie kwessies, wat in albei tekste ondersoek word, bied uiteindelik 'n (her)verbeelding van mense van kleur binne die “ander” sones. / Nangaphandle kwemingcele ye-Afrika, imizimba yabantu abamnyama imakwe ngobuzazisi babanye, lokhu okuvama ukushiya lowo walowo mzimba omnyama esesimweni sokubandlululwa. Ukuba mnyama kuthathwa njengento eyisono neyeqe umngcele omukelekile ngoba, kuvanyiswe ukuthathwa njengokwehlukile kwibala elithile lesikhumba, indawo evamile kanye nezinkambiso zamasiko. Le dissertation ihlola ukuthathwa kwabantu abanebala, ikakhulukazi elimnyama, njengemizimba ewukweqa okuhle nokwamukelekile kanye neyabahlasela indawo. Ukusuka kwimibono yenkathi engemuva kobukoloni, iphenya ngemiphumela yombono webala elimnyama ngenxa yokuya kwamanye amazwe. Ucwaningo luthathela kuhlaziyo olunzulu lwemibhalo kaChinamanda Ngozi Adichie ye-Americanah (2013) kanye ne-Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime (2016) ukuphenya ngokuxhumana kobuzazisi, ukubuka izinto ngeso lebala kanye nezindawo njengezinto eziyizihloko zemibhalo. Ngibeka elokuthi noma udaba lwebala kuyinto eyenziwe ngabantu, kodwa inomphumela kumuntu ophila njengomuntu omnyama, ohlala endaweni ahlala kuyo noma lapho akhona. Ngenxa yalokho-ke, bathwele umthwalo omubi ngenxa yebala labo, ngalokho bazibona njengabahlukile kokujwayelekile nokufanele. Ngokwehluka namanye amanoveli, ukukhathazeka ngokuya kwamanye amazwe kubonakala kakhulu kwi-Americanah ukubheka kanzulu ngemiphumela ejulile yokubuka izinto ngokwebala kubantu ababuya eAfrika abaya kumazwe asentshonalanga. Ngakho ke, ngifuna ukuqaphela indlela abantu abangama-Afrika ababonwa ngayo ngendlela ethile embi nemi ndawonye (stereotyping) ngenxa yomehluko wabo ngokubona izinto ngokwebala kanye nomehluko ngokwezamasiko, ukushintsha ubuzazi babo ukuze bamukelwe nokumukeleka. Ngale ndlela, ucwaningo lubhekisa kwindlela ephelele kaTrevor Noah, yokuzibona eqhelilee nokwehluka ngobuyena ngaphakathi kuye kanye nasemphakathini. Ngokubona izinto ngeso elijulile ngokubheka ezepolitiki kombhali njengesisunduzi kwizinto ezibhekene nabantu kanye nezomnotho. Lezi zinto zicwaninga ngokombhalo kanye nokubeka kabusha ngombono nendlela entsha abantu bebala, emkhakheni wabanye. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Theory of Literature)

In An Image of Africa, Chinua Achebe indicts Conrad’s Heart of Darkness for exemplifying the kind of purist rhetoric that has long benefited Western ontology while propagating reductive renderings of African experience. Edward Said refers to this dynamic as the way in which societies define themselves contextually against an imagined Other. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s fiction exposes how, by occupying cultural dominance, Western, white male values are normalized as universal. Nevertheless, these values are de-naturalized by their inconsistencies in the lived experiences of Adichie’s black, African women. Women who are at once aware of and participant in, the pretentions that underlie social interaction—pointing to the inevitability of performativity and disrupting the illusion of pure identity. These realizations interrupt Conrad’s essentialist conception of identity and reclaim diverse ontological possibilities for the Other.

No description available.

Kein anderes Thema hat die nigerianische Literatur so dominiert wie der nigerianische Bürgerkrieg, in dessen Verarbeitung sich verstärkt auch Autorinnen einmischen. Die Dissertation evaluiert 34 Texte von 16 nigerianischen Autorinnen - 12 Romane und 22 Kurzgeschichten - und analysiert sie als Gesamtkorpus, in dem die Texte miteinander und mit der Männerliteratur einen Dialog um den Bürgerkrieg führen. Die Autorinnen wenden bei ihrem "war talk" literarische Strategien wie "re-reading" und "re-writing" an, das Neu-Lesen, Fort- und Umschreiben der Texte und Diskurse des "Zentrums", durch die nicht nur die Blindstellen eines von Männern dominierten literarischen Diskurses sichtbar werden, sondern durch die auch der Prozess des Aushandelns der Geschlechterverhältnisse sowie des Krieges selbst erfolgt, seiner Ursachen, Auslöser und Folgen. Die Autorinnen stellen den Krieg als "sexuelle Unordnung" dar, als Geschlechterkrieg. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass bei der Verortung der Perspektive der Autorinnen neben Geschlecht, ethnischer Zugehörigkeit auch andere Faktoren, wie Alter, Race, Grad der Distanz oder Nähe etc. berücksichtigt werden müssen, um vorschnelle Festschreibungen zu vermeiden. Hierbei spielen die Paratexte eine wichtige Rolle, in denen die Autorinnen sich persönlich zum Krieg äußern. Die Arbeit bewegt sich an den Schnittstellen mehrerer Disziplinen: Literatur, Historiographie und Geschlechterstudien. In der Einleitung werden die theoretischen Prämissen im Kontext von Krieg, Geschlecht und literarischer Repäsentation behandelt. Das 1. Kapitel ist dem historischen Kontext des Bürgerkrieges, einschließlich der Rolle der Frauen darin gewidmet. Im 2. Kapitel geht es um die Darstellung des Krieges, des Selbst- und Feindbildes sowie der Zukunft. Das dritte Kapitel handelt von der Beziehung zwischen Bürger- und Geschlechterkrieg, vermittelt durch das Medium literarischer Text. Die Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse und der Ausblick auf zukünftige Forschung erfolgt im Schlussteil. Der Anhang enthält ein vorläufiges Verzeichnis der gesamten Frauenliteratur über den nigerianischen Bürgerkrieg. / No other topic has dominated the Nigerian literature as much as the Nigerian Civil War and female authors increasingly interfere in its literary representation. The thesis evaluates 34 literary texts by 16 female Nigerian authors - 12 novels and 22 short stories - and analyses them as distinctive corpus whose individual texts are in a state of dialogue both with each other and with texts from male authors. The female authors use, in their "war talk", literary strategies like "re-reading" and "re-writing" of texts from the "Centre". On the one hand, these strategies enable them to make the blind spots of a male dominated literary discourse apparent/visible on the other hand, they facilitate the negotiation of gender relations and of the war itself, its causes, trigger points and consequences. The female authors represent war as "sexual disorder", as gender war. The study shows that in order to be able to locate an author''s perspective (and to avoid rash conclusions) it is essential to consider the different factors determining it - besides ethnicity and gender, also age, race, the grade of emotional involvement or distance etc. It is in this regard, where the paratexts play an important part, as in these authors express their personal views and comments on the war. The thesis is located at the interfaces of several disciplines: literary, historical and gender studies. The introduction deals with the theoretical backgrounds in the context of war, literary representation and gender. The first chapter is dedicated to the historical context of the Nigerian Civil War including the role of women. The second chapter looks at the paratexts, different representations of the war''s causes, the self-image, the enemy''s image and the future. The third chapter finally deals with the question how the relationship between Civil War and gender war is negotiated/conveyed through the medium of the literary texts. In the conclusion the results are summarized and prospects for future research are discussed. The appendix contains a preliminary bibliography of all literary texts on the Nigerian Civil War written by female authors.