The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity and Resistance in African Literature

Description

This collection is a study of African literature framed by the central, and multi-faceted, idea of 'mother' - motherland, mothertongue, motherwit, motherhood, mothering - looking at the paradoxical location of (m)other as both central and marginal. Book Cover Half-Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Contributors Series preface Acknowledgments Introduction POSTSCRIPT NOTES WORKS CITED 1 Mother’s talk NOTES WORKS CITED 2 Nervous Conditions NATIONALISM AND FEMINISM: “EQUAL AND DIALOGIC”? COLONIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS “HINGE” THE COLONIAL MALE AS “HISTORICAL ARTEFACT” COLONIZED WOMEN: ACCOMMODATION AND THE SOURCES OF RESISTANCE NOTES WORKS CITED 3 Why the Snake-Lizard killed his mother THEORY OF GENDER BALANCE: NNEKA AND CHUKWUKA OKONKWO AND SNAKE-LIZARD: MALE TROPES AS ABSOLUTE STANDARDS METAPHOR AND NUMEROLOGY: THE SYMBOLIC SEVENS AND THREES THE KILLING OF WOMAN: FOR WHOM IS IT GOOD? WOMANBEING: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS CONCLUSION WORKS CITED 4 The Eye and the Other NOTES WORKS CITED 5 Enlightenment epistemology and “aesthetic cognition” “AESTHETIC COGNITION” AS A DIMENSION OF LITERARY CRITICISM GENDER, GENRE, AND AUTHORITY: ‘MIRASSE’ AS NARRATIVE DEVICE ENLIGHTENMENT EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE INVENTION OF POLYGYNY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES WORKS CITED 6 Calixthe Beyala’s “femme-fillette” NOTES WORKS CITED 7 Bound to matter NOTES WORKS CITED 8 MotherTongues and childless women NOTES WORKS CITED 9 Ontological victimhood NOTES WORKS CITED 10 Urban spaces, women’s places FEMINISM, SPEECH, AND SILENCE(D) MODERNITY AS SUBVERSION LIVING WITH CONTRADICTIONS: DIFFERENT LIVES, SAME STORY REVENONS A NOS MOUTONS!21 NOTES WORKS CITED 11 Reconstructing motherhood MOTHER=MOTHER AFRICA IN “MASTER TEXTS” WOMEN WRITING THEMSELVES WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MOTHERING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES WORKS CITED 12 Geographies of pain DISFIGURATION AND CASTRATION: JULETANE AND SIDONIE MEDUSA’S SILENCE: EVA FINDING “GOLD AMIDST THE ASH”: LIFE AND DIKELEDI NOTES WORKS CITED Index