No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Peter L. Larson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-183).

This study consists of a comparative analysis of three novels by three prominent African women writers which cast light on the ways in which women are oppressed by traditional and cultural norms in three different African countries. These three primary texts also explore the ways in which African women‟s lives are affected by other issues, such as colonialism and economic factors, and this study discusses this. An analysis of these novels reveals that the interconnectedness of racial, class and gender issues exacerbates the oppression of many African women, thereby lessening the opportunities for them to attain self-realization. This study goes on to investigate whether there are possibilities of empowerment for the women in the primary texts, and examining the reasons why some women fail to transcend their situations of oppression. The primary novels will be discussed in different chapters, which explore the problems with which various women are beset, and discuss the extent to which the various women in the novels manage to attain empowerment. In conclusion, this study compares and contrasts the ways in which the women in the primary texts are oppressed and highlights the reasons why some women are able to attain empowerment, whilst others are unable to do so. It also shows that many women are beset with comparable forms of oppression, but they may choose to react to these situations differently. Over and above these issues, the study seeks to draw attention to the fact that women need to come together and contribute to the ways in which they can attain various forms ofempowerment.

Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1930 D71

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the portrayal of women characters in two postcolonial Zulu novels: Asikho ndawo bakithi (1996) and Itshwe/e lempangele (1998). The study is approached from a feminist theoretical framework and focuses on gender and culture. The study concentrates on patriarchal relations because they are most widely used as the foundation for a specifically feminist investigation of sexual relations. The study examines two postcolonial novels with the objective to establish how the writers portray women characters after the introduction of the 1994 democratic dispensation in South Africa. In the past, women characters were portrayed as stereotypes: they were either too bad or too good in line with the dictates of the patriarchal society where women are expected to take a subservient role, and men to assume the dominant role. This has made the character of women in fiction exaggerated and one-dimensional in the sense that the women characters do not develop, nor do they behave in various respects like normal human beings. The women characters are often victims of several circumstances caused by patriarchy and other socio-economic factors. The aim of analisying the two novels is to compare them and observe how women, as literary characters are portrayed. The study found that in Asikho ndawo bakithi women characters are portrayed as normal women who respond appropriately to the challenges of their environment. Yet the fact that they live in abject poverty and are homeless, make them victims of the social ills that take their lives cheap. This situation creates tremendous stress and pressure on their lives and leads to gradual moral degradation beyond their control. Itshwele lempangele can be viewed as a post-apartheid novel because it has democritised images of women characters. For example, Ndelebuli teaches his father, Sonqisha that he should never beat up his mother whenever they have problem. Ndelebuli thus becomes an epitome of a young man who treats maidens and married women with dignity, respect and tolerance in the novel. Another issue addressed in the novel is that the women characters portrayed belong to multicultural environments and the exemplary marriages are crosscultural. Of the two novels, Itshwele lempangele presents images of liberated women whereas in Asikho ndawo bakithi, women characters are portrayed as victims of the legacy of the social ills of the apartheid era. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die uitbeelding van vroue in twee post-koloniale novelles in Zulu: Asikho ndawo bakithi (1996) en Itshwe/e lempange/e (1998). Die studie word benader vanuit 'n feministiese toeretiese raamwerk en fokus op gender en kultuuraspekte soos gemanifesteer in die novelles. Die studie fokus op patriargale verhoudinge omdat dit mees algemeen gebruik word as basis vir 'n spesifiek-feministiese ondersoek van seksuele verhoudinge. Die studie ondersoek twee postkoloniale novelles met die doel om vas te stel hoe die skrywers vroue-karakters voorstel na die invoer van die demokratiese bestel in 1994 in Suid-Afrika. In die verlede is vrouekarakters uitgebeeld as stereotipes: hulle was of net positief of net negatief uitgebeeld, in Iyn met die patriargale gemeenskap waarin van vroue verwag is om In onderdanige rol te he, en van mans verwag is om In dominante rol te he. Dit het die karakters van vroue in fiksie een-dimensioneel gemaak in die sin dat vrouekarakters nie ontwikkel nie en dat hulle in verskeie opsigte nie optree soos normale mense nie. Die vrouekarakters was dikwels slagoffers van verskillende omstandighede wat toegeskryf kan word aan patriargie en sosio-ekonomiese faktore. Die doelstelling met die analise van die twee novelles is om hulle te vergelyk en vas te stel hoe vroue as llterere karakters uitgebeeld word. Daar is bevind in die studie dat in Asikho ndawo bakithi vrouekarakters as normale vroue uitgebeeld word wat gepas reageer op die uitdagings van die omgewing. Nietemin veroorsaak die feit dat vroue in uiterste armoede leef en dikwels nie huise het nie, dat hulle slagoffers word van sosiale euwels wat hulle lewens goedkoop maak. Hierdie toestand veroorsaak groot spanning en druk op hulle lewens en dit lei tot morele agteruitgang buite hulle beheer. Itshwe/e lempange/e kan beskou word as In post-apartheid novelle omdat dit die beeld van vroue gedemokratiseer het. Die karakter Ndelebuli leer byvoorbeeld vir sy vader dat hy nooit sy moeder moet slaan nie, watter probleem hulle ookal mag he. Ndelebuli word die toonbeeld in die novelle van hoe jong meisies en vroue met respek en waardigheid behandel moet word. In Verdere verskynsel wat aangespreek word in die novelle is dat die vrouekarakters wat uitgebeeld word vanuit multikulturele omgewings kom en dat goeie voorbeelde van huwelike kruiskultureel is. Itshwele lempangele bied In uitbeelding van bevryde vroue, terwyl Asikho ndawo bakithi vroue uitbeeld as slagoffers van die nalatenskap van die sosiale euwels van apartheid.

published_or_final_version / toc / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

In the sense that women have been hystericized by male theories about femininity, Freudian psychoanalysis has functioned as an institution which seeks women's silence. Hysteria is the dis-ease of this silence; that is to say, it is a set of eloquent symptoms--a "writing" on the body--which signify women's oppression/repression. It is within this apparent contradiction that feminine representation takes place. The figure for such representation is, therefore, hysteria: working "in the gaps," "between the lines," telling the story of patriarchy only to disrupt this story, Frida Kahlo, Anais Nin, and Kathy Acker create feminine fictions. Kahlo's autobiographical painting is inextricable from her obsession with husband Diego Rivera, just as Nin's erotica is inextricable from her relationship with Henry Miller. Likewise, Acker's postmodern production is entangled in the androcentric agenda which attempts to recuperate patriarchy by appropriating the figure of Woman. The "engine" of transference/counter-transference becomes the most viable description of the hysterical process these women employ to represent themselves. The epilogue contains original fictions which extend comment on both hysteria and feminine representation.