Literary representations of the body from Africa as well as narrative strategies of writing the body have only recently begun to receive wider critical attention. The reflections on body, sexuality, and gender in African literary texts brought together in this volume do not consider these three terms as separate entities but instead as closely related to each other, each term questioning the other: bodies and sexualities that are transgressing concepts of gender, gender that is probing body and sexuality. With regard to Africa, the three concepts form a particularly contested space, because body and sexuality are not only subjected to power relations in terms of gender, but also in terms of race, ethnicity, and the legacy of colonialism.
While the sections "Gifted Bodies" and "Queered Bodies" show new developments in viewing body and sexuality as creative powers, the sections "Tainted Bodies" and "Violated Bodies" comprise essays that investigate the exposure of the body to physical aggression and other traumatic experiences.
Some of the authors treated in detail are: Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ, Calixthe Beyala, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bessie Head, Sheila Kohler, Flora Nwapa, Promise Okekwe, Yvonne Vera; André Brink, J.M. Coetzee, K. Sello Duiker, Nuruddin Farah, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dambudzo Marechera, Arthur Nortje, Ben Okri, Shamim Sarif, and Williams Sassine.
CONTRIBUTORS
Akachi Adimora--Ezeigbo
Susan Arndt
Unoma N. Azuah
Elleke Boehmer
Monica Bungaro
Lucy Valerie Graham
Jessica Hemmings
Sigrid G. Köhler
Martina Kopf
Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi
Marion Pape
Robert Muponde
Sarah Nuttall
Drew Shaw
Alioune Sow
Cheryl Stobie
Alexie Tcheuyap
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Flora VEIT-WILD and Dirk NAGUSCHEWSKI: Lifting the Veil of Secrecy
GENDERED BODIES
Chikwenye OKONJO-OGUNYEMI: Tête-à-tête With the Chief: Post-Womanist Discourse in Bessie Head's Maru
Robert MUPONDE: Roots/Routes: Place, Bodies and Sexuality in Yvonne Vera's Butterfly Burning
Sigrid G. KÖHLER: Mad Body-Gifts: A Postcolonial Myth of Motherhood in Calixthe Beyala's Tu t'appelleras Tanga
Monica BUNGARO: Male Feminist Fiction: Literary Subversions of a Gender-Biased Script
QUEERED BODIES
Cheryl STOBIE: Between the Arches of Queer Desire and Race: Representing Bisexual Bodies in the Rainbow Nation
DREW SHAW: Queer Inclinations and Representations: Dambudzo Marechera and Zimbabwean Literature
Elleke BOEHMER: Versions of Yearning and Dissent: The Troping of Desire in Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga
Unoma N. AZUAH: The Emerging Lesbian Voice in Nigerian Feminist Literature
Alexie TCHEUYAP: African Cinema and Representations of (Homo)Sexuality
TAINTED BODIES
Susan ARNDT: Boundless Whiteness? Feminism and White Women in the Mirror of African Feminist Writing
Jessica HEMMINGS: Altered Surfaces. The Ambi Generation of Yvonne Vera's Without a Name and Butterfly Burning
Sarah NUTTALL: Dark Anatomies in Arthur Nortje's Poetry
Alioune SOW: Forbidden Bodies: Relocation and Empowerment in Williams Sassine's Novels
VIOLATED BODIES
Akachi ADIMORA-EZEIGBO: From the Horse's Mouth: The Politics of Remembrance in Women's Writing on the Nigerian Civil War
Marion PAPE: Nigerian War Literature by Women: From Civil War to Gender War
Martina KOPF: Writing Sexual Violence: Words and Silences in Yvonne Vera's Under the Tongue
Lucy VALERIE GRAHAM: Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace
Notes on Contributors and Editors
Notes for Contributors
While the sections "Gifted Bodies" and "Queered Bodies" show new developments in viewing body and sexuality as creative powers, the sections "Tainted Bodies" and "Violated Bodies" comprise essays that investigate the exposure of the body to physical aggression and other traumatic experiences.
Some of the authors treated in detail are: Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ, Calixthe Beyala, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bessie Head, Sheila Kohler, Flora Nwapa, Promise Okekwe, Yvonne Vera; André Brink, J.M. Coetzee, K. Sello Duiker, Nuruddin Farah, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dambudzo Marechera, Arthur Nortje, Ben Okri, Shamim Sarif, and Williams Sassine.
CONTRIBUTORS
Akachi Adimora--Ezeigbo
Susan Arndt
Unoma N. Azuah
Elleke Boehmer
Monica Bungaro
Lucy Valerie Graham
Jessica Hemmings
Sigrid G. Köhler
Martina Kopf
Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi
Marion Pape
Robert Muponde
Sarah Nuttall
Drew Shaw
Alioune Sow
Cheryl Stobie
Alexie Tcheuyap
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Flora VEIT-WILD and Dirk NAGUSCHEWSKI: Lifting the Veil of Secrecy
GENDERED BODIES
Chikwenye OKONJO-OGUNYEMI: Tête-à-tête With the Chief: Post-Womanist Discourse in Bessie Head's Maru
Robert MUPONDE: Roots/Routes: Place, Bodies and Sexuality in Yvonne Vera's Butterfly Burning
Sigrid G. KÖHLER: Mad Body-Gifts: A Postcolonial Myth of Motherhood in Calixthe Beyala's Tu t'appelleras Tanga
Monica BUNGARO: Male Feminist Fiction: Literary Subversions of a Gender-Biased Script
QUEERED BODIES
Cheryl STOBIE: Between the Arches of Queer Desire and Race: Representing Bisexual Bodies in the Rainbow Nation
DREW SHAW: Queer Inclinations and Representations: Dambudzo Marechera and Zimbabwean Literature
Elleke BOEHMER: Versions of Yearning and Dissent: The Troping of Desire in Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga
Unoma N. AZUAH: The Emerging Lesbian Voice in Nigerian Feminist Literature
Alexie TCHEUYAP: African Cinema and Representations of (Homo)Sexuality
TAINTED BODIES
Susan ARNDT: Boundless Whiteness? Feminism and White Women in the Mirror of African Feminist Writing
Jessica HEMMINGS: Altered Surfaces. The Ambi Generation of Yvonne Vera's Without a Name and Butterfly Burning
Sarah NUTTALL: Dark Anatomies in Arthur Nortje's Poetry
Alioune SOW: Forbidden Bodies: Relocation and Empowerment in Williams Sassine's Novels
VIOLATED BODIES
Akachi ADIMORA-EZEIGBO: From the Horse's Mouth: The Politics of Remembrance in Women's Writing on the Nigerian Civil War
Marion PAPE: Nigerian War Literature by Women: From Civil War to Gender War
Martina KOPF: Writing Sexual Violence: Words and Silences in Yvonne Vera's Under the Tongue
Lucy VALERIE GRAHAM: Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace
Notes on Contributors and Editors
Notes for Contributors