Things come together : rereading male representations of motherhood

Mawoyo, Monica

Things come together : rereading male representations of motherhood

Master Thesis

1999

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This thesis presents a challenge to the approach that has been used to read representations of motherhood by male writers. The way of reading that has been used has led to accusations by female critics that the representations are jaundiced, a feeling that pervades the special issue of African Literature Today that focuses only on women's work. The introduction to the thesis outlines arguments that have been presented about the need to write from a point of view of experience, an approach that is meant to exclude male writers from writing about motherhood. The approach is also an attempt to prescribe to male writers how they should write about issues concerning women. It will be argued that the authority of experience argument as well as the accusation that male writers are insensitive in representations of women ends up limiting the way people read. The reading will be restricted to a realist reading that does not encourage an extrapolation of the deeper political meaning that may emerge out of male representations of motherhood. The thesis will stress that my reading of male writers' representations has drawn out diverse and complex meanings. To show the diverse ways in which males have used motherhood to produce some political undercurrent, five texts, ranging from precolonial to postcolonial Africa will be used. The analyses attempt to show using these texts by different male writers, that individual texts always exceed the limitations that can be caused by unimaginative reading.

Description

Bibliography : pages 173-182.

Keywords

English Language and Literature

Reference:

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Masters

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