Description
Book SynopsisLiterary representations of the body from Africa as well as narrative strategies of writing the body have only recently begun to receive wider critical attention. The reflections on body, sexuality, and gender in African literary texts brought together in this volume do not consider these three terms as separate entities but instead as closely related to each other, each term questioning the other: bodies and sexualities that are transgressing concepts of gender, gender that is probing body and sexuality. With regard to Africa, the three concepts form a particularly contested space, because body and sexuality are not only subjected to power relations in terms of gender, but also in terms of race, ethnicity, and the legacy of colonialism. While the sections “Gifted Bodies” and “Queered Bodies” show new developments in viewing body and sexuality as creative powers, the sections “Tainted Bodies” and “Violated Bodies” comprise essays that investigate the exposure of the body to physical aggression and other traumatic experiences. Some of the authors treated in detail are: Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ, Calixthe Beyala, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bessie Head, Sheila Kohler, Flora Nwapa, Promise Okekwe, Yvonne Vera; André Brink, J.M. Coetzee, K. Sello Duiker, Nuruddin Farah, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dambudzo Marechera, Arthur Nortje, Ben Okri, Shamim Sarif, and Williams Sassine. Contributors: Akachi Adimora--Ezeigbo , Susan Arndt, Unoma N. Azuah , Elleke Boehmer, Monica Bungaro , Lucy Valerie Graham , Jessica Hemmings, Sigrid G. Köhler , Martina Kopf , Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi , Marion Pape , Robert Muponde , Sarah Nuttall , Drew Shaw , Alioune Sow , Cheryl Stobie , Alexie Tcheuyap
Trade Review”Die Vielfalt der vereinten Ansätze und analysierten Texte sowie das häufig selbst subversive Angehen von tabuisierten oder vernachlässigten Themen in der afrikanischen Literaturwissenschaft empfehlen diesen Sammelband als ein Standardwerk rund um die aktuellen Debatten zu Gender, Sexualität und dem Körper.” in: Bulletin – Info (Zentrum für transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien) 34, 2007
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Flora VEIT–WILD and Dirk NAGUSCHEWSKI: Lifting the Veil of Secrecy GENDERED BODIES Chikwenye OKONJO–OGUNYEMI: Tête-à-tête With the Chief: Post-Womanist Discourse in Bessie Head’s Maru Robert MUPONDE: Roots/Routes: Place, Bodies and Sexuality in Yvonne Vera’s Butterfly Burning Sigrid G. KÖHLER: Mad Body-Gifts: A Postcolonial Myth of Motherhood in Calixthe Beyala’s Tu t’appelleras Tanga Monica BUNGARO: Male Feminist Fiction: Literary Subversions of a Gender-Biased Script QUEERED BODIES Cheryl STOBIE: Between the Arches of Queer Desire and Race: Representing Bisexual Bodies in the Rainbow Nation DREW SHAW: Queer Inclinations and Representations: Dambudzo Marechera and Zimbabwean Literature | Elleke BOEHMER: Versions of Yearning and Dissent: The Troping of Desire in Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga Unoma N. AZUAH: The Emerging Lesbian Voice in Nigerian Feminist Literature Alexie TCHEUYAP: African Cinema and Representations of (Homo)Sexuality TAINTED BODIES Susan ARNDT: Boundless Whiteness? Feminism and White Women in the Mirror of African Feminist Writing Jessica HEMMINGS: Altered Surfaces. The Ambi Generation of Yvonne Vera’s Without a Name and Butterfly Burning Sarah NUTTALL: Dark Anatomies in Arthur Nortje’s Poetry Alioune SOW: Forbidden Bodies: Relocation and Empowerment in Williams Sassine’s Novels VIOLATED BODIES Akachi ADIMORA–EZEIGBO: From the Horse’s Mouth: The Politics of Remembrance in Women’s Writing on the Nigerian Civil War Marion PAPE: Nigerian War Literature by Women: From Civil War to Gender War Martina KOPF: Writing Sexual Violence: Words and Silences in Yvonne Vera’s Under the Tongue Lucy VALERIE GRAHAM: Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace Notes on Contributors and Editors Notes for Contributors
