Description
Book SynopsisHow can Africans escape the control of the complex power relationships established during Colonization and successfully achieve self-development? More importantly, and the primary concern of this book, can African female characters ever hope to arrive at such individuation given the dual challenges of the power structures defined and enforced by European colonizers and the patriarchal structures that contort issues related to gender? Tracing Personal Expansion reads late 20th Century works by African female novelists Buchi Emecheta, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Calixthe Beyala as modern Bildungsromane, novels of self-development, to reveal the dynamics, complexities, and challenges the characters and authors experience. By exploring the possibility of self-development in African female protagonists, this engrossing work augments existing feminist critiques that have analyzed the possibilities and potentials for the individuation of mostly Western, mostly European female characters.
Trade ReviewCollins has written a book that can serve as an admirable introduction for the student new to African literature. -- Nada Halloway * Research in African Literatures *
Table of Contents1 Foreword 2 Preface 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction Chapter 5 1. The Essence of the Bildungsroman: History and Theory, Possibilities and Future Chapter 6 2. Having Eyes to See More: Emecheta's Second-Class Citizen as Modern Day Bildungsroman Chapter 7 3. "...you're always out, aren't yer?": Adah's Self-Development Progresses in Emecheta's In The Ditch Chapter 8 4. The "Lightening of Various Darknesses": Tambu's Torturous Path to Development in Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions Chapter 9 5. Roused to Re-newed Understanding: Reading Calixthe Beyala's Le Petit Prince de Belleville Chapter 10 6. A Journey Ignites Awakening: Beyala's Maman a un amant 11 Conclusion: What Lies Down the Path? 12 Bibliography 13 Index
