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Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613782089400320 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mkwesha, Faith |
| author2 | Samuelson, Meg |
| author_browse | Mkwesha, Faith Samuelson, Meg |
| author_facet | Samuelson, Meg Mkwesha, Faith |
| author_sort | Mkwesha, Faith |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/98347 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:41:36.774Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/98347 Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images Mkwesha, Faith Samuelson, Meg Bangeni, Nwabisa Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of English. Women authors, Zimbabwean -- 20th century Gender identity in literature Sex role in literature UCTD Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: My thesis focuses on Zimbabwean women as writers and thus on women as producers, contesters and negotiators of gendered images, and the ways in which they write gender identities in and of the nation. I have selected Zimbabwean women-authored texts written in English, from 1950 to 2015. The fictional texts are set in five historical periods – pre-colonial and colonial incursions and the first chimurenga (war) from 1890-1897, colonial rule from 1898-1966, the second chimurenga 1966-1978, independence and the first two decades of self-rule from 1980-1999, and the third chimurenga? and the Zimbabwe crisis from 2000 to the present – each of which is marked by important gender (re)configurations. My delineation of the five historical periods refers to the setting, not production, of the primary texts. The periodization approach makes evident the significant shifts in gender relations and roles in the home and the nation, and the ways in which narratives by women writers reproduce, inscribe, recreate, subvert or contest these gendered positions. Also, organizing primary texts according to their temporal setting depicts how gendered images are composed in each era, which is then revisited by later generations of writers to re-create the images. The women writers revisit the past to raise pertinent issues about the present state of the nation. I argue for the duality of gender, because this perspective makes evident how gendered subjects are produced, showing that women’s identities and roles are shaped in relation to those of men and vice versa. I argue for the category of woman in Chapter 1, and read the texts as fictional narratives written by women because this approach shows how Zimbabwean women writers contest and challenge gender images created by settlers and nationalists from different ideological perspectives, and hold up mirrors to their gendered societies, while constructing new self-images along with new constructions of masculinity. Throughout the thesis I read closely the texts as laboratories where gender is conceived, practised, tested, discarded, and re-defined. In the Introduction Chapter 1, I also argue for the interconnectedness of sex, race, ethnicity, class and politics in the constitution of gender subjectivities. Using the house trope, the quest motif and the filth trope I analyse themes of inclusion, exclusion and belonging. There are seven chapters: Chapter 1 the introduction, Chapter 2 focuses on the woman-hero and the weeping hunter, Chapter 3 focuses on the questing rebellious modern woman and the ineffective husband, absent father, jealous husband and possessive boyfriend, Chapter 4 redefines the concept of hero to inscribe women liberation heroines in the nation, while challenging the authenticity of the self-glorifying nationalist male hero, Chapter 5 focuses on liberated genders, Chapter 6 focuses on the resilient woman and the vulnerable man, and Chapter 7 is the Conclusion. The questions with which I approach the five historical moments represented in my primary texts are: How do women writers renegotiate, contest and re-inscribe gendered images located in these five historical periods? What role do women as writers and characters play in the construction and redefinition of their images and those of their male counterparts? What kind of alternative avenues open up for writers to represent women’s interests? In what ways do these representations of gender participate in the (re)imagining of the nation? AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: My proefskrif ondersoek die rol van Zimbabwiese vroue as skrywers, en die maniere waarop hulle die geslagsidentiteite van die nasie verbeel en verbeeld. Hierdie vroueskrywers vervaardig sekere beelde van geslagtelikheid, en terselfdertyd bestry en onderhandel hulle oor die beelde wat reeds bestaan. Ek fokus op tekste wat deur Zimbabwiese vroue in Engels geskryf is. Hierdie fiktiewe stories omskryf vyf historiese tydvakke: die pre-koloniale en koloniale invalle, asook die eerste chimurenga (oorlog) van 1890-1897, die tydperk van koloniale bedwing van 1898-1966, die tweede chimurenga 1966-1978, onafhanklikheid en die eerste twee dekades van selfbestuur van 1980-1999, en die sogenaamde derde chimurenga en die Zimbabwiese krisis van 2000 tot die hede. Elkeen van hierdie tydperke word deur belangrike (her)konfigurasies van geslagtelikheid gekenmerk. My uiteensetting van die vyf tydperke verwys na die tyd-ruimtelike plasing van die stories, en nie na die tydperk waarin die tekste vervaardig is nie. So 'n groepering volgens periode beklemtoon die beduidende verskuiwings in geslagsrolle en verhoudings binne die huis asook die nasie. Dit onderstreep die maniere waarop narratiewe deur vroueskrywers hierdie geslagsposisies reproduseer, beskryf, omskep, ondermyn of bestry. Die groepering van die tekste volgens temporale ligging gee 'n aanduiding van die maniere waarop geslagtelikheid in elke era voorgestel word, en deur latere skrywers heromskryf word. Die skrywers keer terug na die verlede, ten einde pertinente vrae oor die huidige stand van die nasie daar te stel. Ek voer aan dat geslagtelikheid dualisties is, omdat so 'n perspektief die maniere waarop gendered subjekte voorgestel word, duidelik maak. Sodoende sien mens dat vroue-identiteite en -rolle geskep word in verhouding met die van mans, en vice versa. Daar is sewe hoofstukke in die proefskrif: In die inleiding sit ek my teoretiese grondslag uiteen. In hoofstuk twee fokus ek op die vroulike-held en die wenende jagter. Hoofstuk drie slaan ag op die uitbeelding van die soekende, rebelse moderne vrou in teenstand met die onbekwame of jaloerse man, die afwesige vader en die besitlike kerel. In hoofstuk vier kyk ek na die manier waarop die konsep van die held herdefinieer word om vroulike vryheidsvegters as nasionale helde in te sluit, terwyl die geloofwaardigheid van die selfverheerlikende nasionalistiese manlike held in twyfel getrek word. Hoofstuk vyf fokus op geslagsbevryding, hoofstuk ses vergelyk die beelde van die sterk vrou en die kwesbare man, en hoofstuk sewe is die slot. My analise van die vyf voorgestelde historiese tydperke word gelei deur die vraag van hoe vroueskrywers die voorstellings van geslagtelikheid wat in hierdie vyf tydperke uitgebeeld word, ondersoek en omskryf. Wat is die rol van vroulike skrywers en karakters in die daarstelling en herdefiniering van die beeld van vroue en hul manlike ekwivalente? Wat is die alternatiewe maniere waarop vrouebelange uitgebeeld kan word? Hoe dra hierdie uitbeeldings van geslagtelikheid by tot die (her)verbeelding van die nasie? Ek fokus hoofsaaklik op die idee van “vrou” as kategorie. Ek voer aan dat daar 'n onderlinge verbinding is tussen seks, ras, etnisiteit, klas en politiek in die daarstelling van geslagtelikheid. Ek lees deurgans die tekste as laboratoriums, waar geslagtelikheid voorgestel, beoefen en getoets word, mee weggedoen word, en heromskryf word. Hierdie aanslag laat my toe om te wys hoe Zimbabwiese vroueskrywers geslagsbeelde wat deur die uiteenlopende ideologiese perspektiewe van setlaars en nasionaliste geskep is, bestry en betwis. Hierdie skrywers hou 'n spieëlbeeld vir hul gendered samelewings op, terwyl hulle nuwe beelde van self, asook van manlikheid skep. Deur ag te slaan op die gebruik van die troop van die huis, die motief van die soektog, en die troop van vuilgoed in hierdie tekste, analiseer ek tema's van insluiting, uitsluiting, en saamhorigheid. Doctoral 2016-03-09T14:08:13Z 2016-03-09T14:08:13Z 2016-03 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/98347 en_ZA Stellenbosch University xi, 219 pages : facsimile application/pdf application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Women authors, Zimbabwean -- 20th century Gender identity in literature Sex role in literature UCTD Mkwesha, Faith Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title | Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title_full | Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title_fullStr | Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title_full_unstemmed | Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title_short | Zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present : re-creating gender images |
| title_sort | zimbabwe women writers from 1950 to the present re creating gender images |
| topic | Women authors, Zimbabwean -- 20th century Gender identity in literature Sex role in literature UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/98347 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mkweshafaith zimbabwewomenwritersfrom1950tothepresentrecreatinggenderimages |