Dissertation

A Comparative Analysis of the Feminist Project in Ba's so Long a Letter, and Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile

Tsehloane, Thabo

1997

Overview

This research report will a make a comparative critical analysis of the two African feminist texts namely So Long A Letter and God Dies by the Nile. Their humanist and essentialist assumptions which underpin the texts' critique of patriarchy will be challenged and interrogated. The proj-ct will attempt show how both texts respond to masculine myths about gender by replacing those myths with other constructions which define WOmen or peasants in different yet nonetheless enclosed and stereotypical generalisations. In the process of this interrogative analysis ideology of each text as manifested through its stylistic devices such as plot, characterisation, setting and other formal features will be examined. Three important issues which will be central in this analysis namely question of identity, conceptions of power and projections of feminist liberation. The approach that will be adopted is the one which will assume the autonomy of the text over authorial claims or stated intentions. The fact that a text is written by a woman writer does not necessarily mean that it stands in antithetical terms to the dominant patriarchal values.The first chapter begins the discussion with a theoretical introduction to the comparative analysis of the project. The second chapter will be based around the critical analysis of Manama Ba' s So Long A Letter. The third chapter will focus on Nawal Saadawi'sGod Dies by the Nile. The fourth chapter concludes the discussion with an evaluative and comparative commentary on the two texts and by charting the way forward for African literary criticism.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Gender identity / Gender studies / Masculinity / Middle class / Oppression / Patriarchy / Social exclusion / Social psychology / Social structure / Women
• ISBN: 9798302314642