A comparative analysis of the feminist project in Ba's So long a letter, and Saadawi's God dies by the Nile

[摘要] This research report willmake a comparative critical analysis of the two Africanfeminist texts namely So Long A Letter and God Dies by the Nile. Their humanist andessentialist assumptions which underpin the texts' critique of patriarchy will bechallenged and interrogated. The project will attempt show how both texts respond tomasculine myths about gender by replacing those myths with other constructions whichdefine Women or peasants in different yet nonetheless enclosed and stereotypicalgeneralisations. In the process of this interrogative analysis ideology of each text asmanifested through its stylistic devices such as plot, characterisation, setting and otherformal features will be examined. Three important issues which will be central in thisanalysis namely question of identity, conceptions of power and projections of feministliberation. The approach that will be adopted is the one which will assume the autonomyof the text over authorial claims or stated intentions. The fact that a text is written by awoman writer does not necessarily mean that it stands in antithetical terms to thedominant patriarchal values.The first chapter begins the discussion with a theoretical introduction to the comparativeanalysis of the project. The second chapter will be based around the critical analysis ofManama Ba' s So Long A Letter. The third chapter will focus on Nawal Saadawi's GodDies by the Nile. The fourth chapter concludes the discussion with an evaluative andcomparative commentary on the two texts and by charting the way forward for Africanliterary criticism,

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand