Invention or reflection? - tradition and orality in the works of Bessie Head

[摘要] This dissertation examines the work of Bessie Head witha view to sophisticating prevailing understandings of hertexts which tend to concentrate on Head's place in atradition of African women writers. Current criticalworks emphasise selected aspects, of Head's biography andassume her presentation of the 'tradition' and 'orality'of Serowe to be accurate. We argue in this dissertationthat Head has constructed and manipulated concepts of'tradition' and 'orality' in her texts to suit both herintellectual concerns and her fictional intentions.Broadly these are to present her works as the recordedhistory of an 'oral African' society. Head's six novelsas well as aspects of her letters and interviews areexamined in order to demonstrate this assertion.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand