The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity and Resistance in African Literature (Opening Out: Feminism for Today)

This collection is a study of African literature framed by the central, and multi-faceted, idea of 'mother' - motherland, mothertongue, motherwit, motherhood, mothering - looking at the paradoxical location of (m)other as both central and marginal. Book Cover Half-Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Contributors Series preface Acknowledgments Introduction POSTSCRIPT NOTES WORKS CITED 1 Mother’s talk NOTES WORKS CITED 2 Nervous Conditions NATIONALISM AND FEMINISM: “EQUAL AND DIALOGIC”? COLONIAL PSYCHOLOGY AS “HINGE” THE COLONIAL MALE AS “HISTORICAL ARTEFACT” COLONIZED WOMEN: ACCOMMODATION AND THE SOURCES OF RESISTANCE NOTES WORKS CITED 3 Why the Snake-Lizard killed his mother THEORY OF GENDER BALANCE: NNEKA AND CHUKWUKA OKONKWO AND SNAKE-LIZARD: MALE TROPES AS ABSOLUTE STANDARDS METAPHOR AND NUMEROLOGY: THE SYMBOLIC SEVENS AND THREES THE KILLING OF WOMAN: FOR WHOM IS IT GOOD? WOMANBEING: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS CONCLUSION WORKS CITED 4 The Eye and the Other NOTES WORKS CITED 5 Enlightenment epistemology and “aesthetic cognition” “AESTHETIC COGNITION” AS A DIMENSION OF LITERARY CRITICISM GENDER, GENRE, AND AUTHORITY: ‘MIRASSE’ AS NARRATIVE DEVICE ENLIGHTENMENT EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE INVENTION OF POLYGYNY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES WORKS CITED 6 Calixthe Beyala’s “femme-fillette” NOTES WORKS CITED 7 Bound to matter NOTES WORKS CITED 8 MotherTongues and childless women NOTES WORKS CITED 9 Ontological victimhood NOTES WORKS CITED 10 Urban spaces, women’s places FEMINISM, SPEECH, AND SILENCE(D) MODERNITY AS SUBVERSION LIVING WITH CONTRADICTIONS: DIFFERENT LIVES, SAME STORY REVENONS A NOS MOUTONS!21 NOTES WORKS CITED 11 Reconstructing motherhood MOTHER=MOTHER AFRICA IN “MASTER TEXTS” WOMEN WRITING THEMSELVES WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MOTHERING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES WORKS CITED 12 Geographies of pain DISFIGURATION AND CASTRATION: JULETANE AND SIDONIE MEDUSA’S SILENCE: EVA FINDING “GOLD AMIDST THE ASH”: LIFE AND DIKELEDI NOTES WORKS CITED Index

A feminist study that interrogates feminist theorizing, The Politics of (M)Othering calls into question the validity of the traditional/modern prototype in analysis of African Literature. This volume examines the many faces of Mother in African works--motherland, mother tongue, motherwit, motherhood, mothering--that expose the paradoxical location of (m)other as both a central and peripheral other.

On many levels, the essays in this volume problematize the issue of victim as it is articulated by a feminist voice. Though this volume stands as a feminist analysis of African Literature, it engages in feminist theory itself by demonstrating how issues in feminism such as voice, agency, victimhood, subjectivity, choice, sisterhood and motherhood are recast in different ways.

This study of African literature examines the paradoxical location of (m)other as both central and marginal and is framed by the idea of "mother"--Motherland, mothertongue, motherwit, motherhood, and mothering. Whilst the volume stands as a sustained feminist analysis, it engages feminist theory itself by showing how issues in feminism are, in African literature, recast in different and complex ways. The core arguments in the volume foreground epistemological questions - the construction, containment, and dissemination of knowledge - and the role that gender politics plays in them. Even more significantly, The Politics of (M)Othering insists on the importance of cultural literacy to an effective analysis of cultural productions such as African literary texts This collection is a study of African literature framed by the central, and multi-faceted, idea of'mother'- motherland, mothertongue, motherwit, motherhood, mothering - looking at the paradoxical location of (m)other as both central and marginal. Whilst the volume stands as a sustained feminist analysis, it engages feminist theory itself by showing how issues in feminism are, in African literature, recast in different and complex ways. "The most stupid of all animals that fly, walk and swim, that live beneath the ground, in water, or in the air, are undoubtedly crocodiles, which crawl on land and walk at the bottom of the water ... And this, for no other reason than that they have the best memories in the world." The volume is unique in its extensive territorial claims, in terms of genre (orature, fiction, theater, and autobiography) and geography (from all regions of Africa to the African Diaspora)