The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity and Resistance in African Literature (Opening Out: Feminism for Today) - Softcover

Nnaemeka, Obioma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 041513790X ISBN 13: 9780415137904

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

..."this collection achieves an extraordinarily fruitful collaboration between theory and application, promoting a reassessment of the relationship between Aftican literature and feminist discourse."
-"JAAS
"A brilliantly conceived work that forces a re-thinking of current feminist/epistemological concepts in African literature. This is a landmark volume that is bound to transform scholarship on women in African literature."
-Helen N. Mugambi, California State University
"Amidst all the anomy of interpretative grids, and vulgarization of African cultures and peoples, "The Politics of (M)Othering emerges as breath of fresh air. The collection is indeed a "tour de force" and an excellent contribution to the ongoing debate about feminism and African literature."
-Michael Mbabuike, City University of New York
"This volume is authoritative, bold and incisive and mostly delivered with the suavity and confidence that can only come from a keen knowledge of Africa."
-Chimalom Nwanko, North Carolina State University
"Nothing comes close in individual or collective engagement to demonstrate that feminist discourse has a vital role in African literary or cultural processes. This volume is authoritative, bold and incisive and mostly delivered with the sauvity and confidence that can only come from a keen knowledge of Africa with all its intrinsic paradoxes and the sundry cultural complexities exacerbated by the encounter with the West."
-Chimalum Nwanko, North Carolina State University

Synopsis:

Over the last decade, post-colonial studies has become a defining feature in critical thought, but until very recently attention has been focused on areas other than Africa and its wealth of literature. The arrival of The Politics of (M)Othering signals an important shift of focus. African studies will certainly be setting the agenda in the future. This study of African literature examines the paradoxical location of (m)other as both central and marginal and is framed by the idea of "mother" - motherland, mothertongue, motherwit, motherhood and mothering. Whilst the volume stands as a sustained feminist analysis, it engages feminist theory itself by showing how issues in feminism are, in African literature, recast in different and complex ways. The core arguments in the volume foreground epistemological questions - the construction, containment, and dissemination of knowledge - and the role that gender politics plays in them. Even more significantly, The Politics of (M)Othering insists on the importance of cultural literacy to an effective analysis of cultural productions such as African literary texts.

The volume is unique in its extensive territorial claims, in terms of genre (orature, fiction, theater, and autobiography) and geography (from all regions of Africa to the African Diaspora) This collection brings together at the forefront of African literatures - Trinh T. Minh-ha, Francoise Lionnet, Obioma Nnaemeka, Huma Ibrahim, Peter Hitchcock, Charles Sugnet, Uzo Esonwanne, Renee Larrier, Celeste Fraser Delgado, Ousseynou B. Trao D're, Julianna Nfah-Abbenyi, and Cynthia Ward.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 041513790X
• ISBN 13: 9780415137904
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256