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BLACK AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS A SELECTIVE GUIDE

BLACK AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS A SELECTIVE GUIDE Since the 1970s, interest in African literature has grown considerably in English and comparative literature departments at American colleges and universities. African writings increasingly appear on multidisciplinary and multicultural reading lists, exposing both high school and undergraduate students to such Anglophone and Francophone writers as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ferdinand Oyono. Noticeably absent from this literary boom, however, was a female point of view. Nearly all of the writers read and discussed were male and these writers, in turn, created a picture of a maledominated society with women portrayed in the traditional roles of mothers and wives. In fiction, women characters were nearly always secondary to the major male protagonists. Some works, such as Elechi Amadi's novel, The Concubine, went so far as to openly disdain women. Critics also concentrated solely on male writers and examined the roles of women primarily from a male perspective. Even a dearth of female writers have added to this limited view. It was not until 1956 that Flora Nwapa published Efuru, the first African novel by a woman in English, and she was then dismissed as just another woman writing about women's issues. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Collection Building Emerald Publishing

BLACK AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS A SELECTIVE GUIDE

Collection Building , Volume 14 (1): 9 – Jan 1, 1995

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0160-4953
DOI
10.1108/eb023391
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Since the 1970s, interest in African literature has grown considerably in English and comparative literature departments at American colleges and universities. African writings increasingly appear on multidisciplinary and multicultural reading lists, exposing both high school and undergraduate students to such Anglophone and Francophone writers as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ferdinand Oyono. Noticeably absent from this literary boom, however, was a female point of view. Nearly all of the writers read and discussed were male and these writers, in turn, created a picture of a maledominated society with women portrayed in the traditional roles of mothers and wives. In fiction, women characters were nearly always secondary to the major male protagonists. Some works, such as Elechi Amadi's novel, The Concubine, went so far as to openly disdain women. Critics also concentrated solely on male writers and examined the roles of women primarily from a male perspective. Even a dearth of female writers have added to this limited view. It was not until 1956 that Flora Nwapa published Efuru, the first African novel by a woman in English, and she was then dismissed as just another woman writing about women's issues.

Journal

Collection BuildingEmerald Publishing

Published: Jan 1, 1995

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