A comparative analysis of the feminist project in Ba's So long a letter, and Saadawi's God dies by the Nile
Date
1997
Authors
Tsehloane, Thabo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This research report will 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 project 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's God
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,
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of
Arts
Keywords
Feminist literary criticism -- Africa., African literature., Sa'dawi, Nawal God dies by the Nile., Bâ, Mariama, So long a letter.