Writing African Women: Gender, Popular Culture and Literature in West Africa

by Wendy Griswold (Foreword by), Stephanie Newell (Editor)

Overview

How does our understanding of Africa shift when we begin from the perspective of women? What can the African perspective offer theories of culture and of gender difference?

This work, as unique and insightful today as when it was first published, brings together a wide variety of African academics and other researchers to explore the links between literature, popular culture and theories of gender. Beginning with a ground-breaking overview of African gender theory, the book goes on to analyse women's writing, uncovering the ways different writers have approached issues of female creativity and colonial history, as well as the ways in which they have subverted popular stereotypes around African women. The contributors also explore the related gender dynamics of mask performance and oral story-telling.

This major analysis of gender in popular and postcolonial cultural production remains essential reading for students and academics in women's studies, cultural studies and literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786990105
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/15/2017
Series:	African Culture Archive
Edition description:	New edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Stephanie Newell is a professor of English at the Yale University, specialising in West African literature. Her other books include The Power to Name: A History of Anonymity in Colonial West Africa (2013) and The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku (2006).

Wendy Griswold is the Bergen Evans Professor of Humanities at Northwestern University. Her books include Cultures and Societies in a Changing World (new edition 2012) and Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria (2000).
Stephanie Newell is a professor of English at the Yale University, specialising in West African literature. Her other books include The Power to Name: A History of Anonymity in Colonial West Africa (2013) and The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku (2006).

Wendy Griswold is the Bergen Evans Professor of Humanities at Northwestern University. Her books include Cultures and Societies in a Changing World (new edition 2012) and Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria (2000).

Table of Contents

PART I: Theory and Politics
1. Reading Towards a Theorization of African Women's Writing - Nana Wilson-Tagoe
2. Masculinity: The Military, Women and Cultural Politics in Nigeria - Bayo Ogunjimi
3. Women's Role in Ghana's Social Development - Akosua Gyamfuaa-Fofie

PART 2: Literatures
4. A Life on the Women's Page: Treena Kwenta's Diary - Jane Bryce
5. The Short Stories of Mabel Dove-Danquah - Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang
6. Selected Stories by Theodor Ezeigbo and May Ifeoma Nwoye - Chinyere Okafor
7. Gender Conflict in Flora Nwapa's Novels - Theodora Akachi Ezeigbo
8. Culture and Gender Semantics in Flora Nwapa's Poetry - Obododimma Oha
9. The Writing of Zaynab Alkali and Hauwa Ali - Margaret Hauwa Kassam
10. The Onus of Womanhood: Mariama Bâ and Zaynab Alkali - Ibiyemi Mojola
11. Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy and No Sweetness Here - Chioma Opara

PART 3: Popular Culture
12. Hausa Women as Oral Storytellers in Nigeria - Sani Abba Aliyu
13. Gender Politics in West African Mask Performance - Chinyere Grace Okafor
14. Three Perspectives on Marriage and Gender in Nigerian Non-Fiction - Stephanie Newell
15. Women in Metal Casting in Benin City, Nigeria - Adepeju Layiwola

Editorial Reviews

Clear, informed thinking about the gendered nexus of culture and power is needed more than ever. The new publication of Newell's collection is an event to be applauded, and its contents to be pondered.” —Wendy Griswold, from the Foreword

From the Publisher