Rewriting the Return of Africa

Rewriting the Return of Africa
Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
Total Pages : 147
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780739148266
ISBN-13 : 0739148265
Rating : 4/5 (66 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Rewriting the Return of Africa by : Anne M. François

Download or read book Rewriting the Return of Africa written by Anne M. François and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rewriting The Return to Africa: Voices of Francophone Caribbean Women Writers examines the ways Guadeloupean women writers Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart and Myriam Warner-Vieyra demystify the theme of the return to Africa as opposed to the its masculinist version by Négritude male writers from the 1930s to 1960s. Négritude, a cultural and literary movement, drew much of its strength from the idea of a mythical or cultural reconnection with the African past allegorized as a mother figure. In contrast these women writers, of the post-colonial era who are to large extent heirs of Négritude, differ sharply from their male counterparts in their representation of Africa. In their novels, the continent is not represented as a propitious mother figure but a disappointing father figure. This study argues that these women writers' subversion of the metaphorical figure of Africa and its transformation is tied to their gender. The women novelists are indeed critical of a female allegorization of the land that is reminiscent of a colonial or nationalist project and a simplistic representation of motherhood that does not reflect the complexities of the Diaspora's relation to origins and identity. Unlike the primary male writers of the Négritude movement, theycarefully "gendered" the notion of return by choosing female protagonists who made their way back to the Motherland in search of identity. I argue that writing is a more suitable space for the female subject seeking identity because it allows her to havea voice and become subject rather than object as that was the case with the Négritude writers. The women writers' shattering of the image of Mother Africa and subsequently that of Father Africa highlights the complex relationship between Africa and the Diaspora from a female point of view. It shifts the identity quest of the characters towards the Caribbean, which emerges as the real problematic mother: a multi-faceted, fragmented figure that reflects the constitutive clash that occurred in the archipelago between Europe, Africa, and the Americas where the issues of race, gender, class, culture, ethnicity, history, and language are very complex.


Rewriting the Return of Africa Related Books

Rewriting the Return of Africa
Language: en
Pages: 147
Authors: Anne M. François
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-08-16 - Publisher: Lexington Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Rewriting The Return to Africa: Voices of Francophone Caribbean Women Writers examines the ways Guadeloupean women writers Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart an
Reimagining the Caribbean
Language: en
Pages: 213
Authors: Valérie K. Orlando
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-07-01 - Publisher: Lexington Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together scholars working in different languages—Creole, French, English, Spanish—and modes of cultural production—literature, art, fil
Spatial Boundaries, Abounding Spaces
Language: en
Pages: 304
Authors: Mohit Chandna
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-06-30 - Publisher: Leuven University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Colonialism advanced its project of territorial expansion by changing the very meaning of borders and space. The colonial project scripted a unipolar spatial di
Rewriting Modernity
Language: en
Pages: 249
Authors: David Attwell
Categories: Apartheid in literature
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: Ohio University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History connects the black literary archive in South Africa to international postcolonial studies v
These Bones Will Rise Again
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Panashe Chigumadzi
Categories: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018 - Publisher: Mood Indigo

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What are the right questions to ask when seeking out the spirit of a nation? In November, 2017, the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented a