Feminist Knowledge | Bibliography: African Women's Studies I
From the eighties, feminist critics responded to the proliferation of African women's fiction by exploring the distinctive narrative strategies, styles and themes of African women writers.
While
writings in the eighties were celebratory in orientation, from the start of
the nineties, critics developed perceptive analyses of subject-matter and narrative
techniques. An important example of this later work is Graves and Carol Boyce
Davies' Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature (1986). Another development
was the growth of studies of African women's fiction in the context of diasporic
black women's writing. Wilentz' Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa
and the Diaspora (1992) draws together pioneering studies in this mould. Cross-disciplinary
studies by writers like Karin Barber mark important efforts to explore women's
everyday experiences by applying textual analysis to popular cultural processes
and texts.
Abrahams, C. A. Ed. 1990. The Tragic Life: Bessie Head and Literature in Southern Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Abu-Luhod, L. 1993. Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Achufusi, I. 1989. "Dilemma of the Contemporary African Women: A Reflection of the Changing Process in African Social Life", in Oheagbu, A. U. ed. Language, Literature and Social Change. Nsukka, Nigeria: Modern Language Association of Nigeria.
Adams, A. 1993. "Claiming Her Authority From Life: Twenty Years of African Women's Literary Criticism." Matatu, Vol 10:155–172.
Aidoo, A. 1986. "Unwelcome Pals and Decorative Slaves: Or Glimpses of Women as Writers and Characters in Contemporary African Literature", in Emenyonu, E. ed. Literature and Society: Selected Essays on African Literature. Oguta, Nigeria: Zim Pan African Publishers.
Aidoo, A. 1988. "To Be an African Woman Writer: An Overview and a Detail", in Petersen, K. H. ed. Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writer's Conference, Stockholm, 1986. Uppsala, Sweden: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Seminar Proceedings 20.
Ajayi, O. 1991. "From His Symbol to Her Icon: An Analysis of the Presentation of Women in African Contemporary Literary Works." American Journal of Semiotics, 8, 3:31–52.
Al-Ali, N. 1994. Gender Writing/Writing Gender: The Representation of Women in a Selection of Modern Egyptian Literature. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press.
Andrade, S. 1990. "Rewriting History, Motherhood and Rebellion: Naming of African Women's Literary Tradition." Research in African Literatures, Vol 21, Spring:91–110.
Association of University Teachers of Literature and Language. 1987. "Liberation of Female Consciousness in African Literature." Literature, Language and the Nation: Proceedings of the Second General Conference of the Association of University Teachers of Literature and Language. Harare, Zimbabwe: University of Zimbabwe.
Barber, K. 1991. I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Baron, B. 1994. The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society and the Press. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Berrian, B. 1982. "African Women as Seen in the Works of Flora Nwapa and Ama Ata Aidoo." College Language Association Journal, 25, 3.
Bonaventura, W. 1983. Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World. London: Saqi Books.
Bosman, B. 1990. "Correspondence Without Theory: Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions." Current Writing, 2.
Brown, L. 1981. Women Writers in Black Africa. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Bunn, D. 1988. "Embodying Africa: Women and Romance in Colonial Fiction." English in Africa, 15, 1:10–28.
Busby, M. 1991. "Women Writers Speak Out." Africa Forum, 1, 1:33–35.
Busia, A. 1986. "Miscegenation as Metonymy: Sexuality and Power in the Colonial Novel." Ethnic and Racial Studies. 9, 3:360–372.
Busia, A. 1989. "Parasite and Prophets: The Use of Women in Ayi Kwei Armah's Novels", in Boyce Davies, C. and Graves, A. eds. Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature. Trenton. NJ: Africa World Press.
Clayton, C. 1989. Women and Writing in South Africa: A Critical Anthology. Marshalltown: Heinemann Southern Africa.
D'Almeida, I. 1994. Francophone African Women Writers: Destroying the Emptiness of Silence. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press.
Davies, C. 1986. "Feminist Consciousness and African Literary Criticism", in Davies C. and Graves, A. eds. Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press Inc:1–23.
Davies, C. 1987. "Wrapping Oneself in Mother's Akatado Cloths. Mother-Daughter Relationships in African Women Writers' Works." Sage, 4, 2 Fall:12–19.
Davies, C. 1991. "Private Selves and Public Spaces: Autobiography and the African Woman Writer." CLA Journal, 34, March:267–289.
Davies, C. 1991. “Private Selves and Public Spaces: Autobiography and the African Woman Writer”, in Harrow, K. Ed. Crisscrossing Boundaries in African Literatures. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press and the African Literature Association (ALA). Annual Selected Papers.
Davies, C. and Fido, E. 1993. "African Women Writers: Towards a Literary History", in Owomoyela, O. ed. A History of Twentieth Century African Literatures. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Davies, C. and Graves, A. Eds. 1986. Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Davies, C. Ed. 1989. Black Women's Writing: Crossing the Boundaries. Frankfurt AM: Ehling.
Davies, C. Ed. 1995. Moving Beyond Boundaries: Black Women's Diaporas. (2 vols). London: Pluto Press.
Dieke, I. 1993. "The Feminine Principle: Mythos of Fertility, Redemption and Awe in African Literature", in Dieke, I. ed. The Primordial Image. New York: Lang.
Dieke, I. 1993. The Primordial Image. New York: Lang.
Driver, D. 1988. “Woman as 'Sign' in the South African Colonial Enterprise." Journal of Literary Studies:3–19.
Driver, D. 1992. “Autobiography Written by Black South African Women: The Question of Identity”, in Driver, D. Aspects of Commonwealth Literature: Collected Seminar Papers. University of London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
Duesterholf, D. 1992. "Special Periodical Issues About African Women, 1972–1991." Current Bibliography on African Affairs, 24, 1:1–52.
Eko, E. 1986. "Beyond the Myth of Confrontation: A Comparative Study of African and African-American Female Protagonists." Phylon, 47, 3, September:219–229.
Eko, E. 1986. "Changes in the Image of the African Woman: A Celebration." Phylon, 47, 3, September:210–218.
Flockemann, M. 1992. "'Not-Quite Insiders and Not-Quite Outsiders': 'The Process of Womanhood' in Beka Lamb, Nervous Conditions and Daughters of the Twilight." Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 27, 1.
Frank, K. 1984. "Feminist Criticism and the African Novel." African Literature Today, 14.
Frank, K. 1987. "Women Without Men: The Feminist Novel in Africa", in Jones, E. ed. Women in African Literature Today. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Harlow, B. 1986. "From the Women's Prison: Third World Women's Narratives of Prison." Feminist Studies.
Haynes, J. 1985. “On Actually Existing Imaginary Women”, in Imam, A., Pittin, R. and Omole, H. 1985. Women and the Family in Nigeria. Dakar: CODESRIA.
Imam, A., Chelli, M., and Andel-Kadre, S. Eds. Women and the Mass Media in Africa. Dakar: AAWORD.
Ibrahim, H. 1989. "The Autobiographical Content in the Works of South African Women Writers: The Personal and the Political", in Ramelb, C. ed. Biography East and West. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Johnson, R. 1990. "Womanism and Feminism in African Letters." Literary Criterion, 25, 2.
Jones, E. 1987. Women in African Literature Today. London: James Currey; Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Kalu, A. 1994. "Those Left Out in the Rain: African Literary Theory and the Reinvention of the African Woman." African Studies Review. September.
Kemp, Y. 1990. "Romantic Love and the Individual Novels by Mariama Ba, Buchi Ememcheta and Bessie Head" in Wylie, H., Brutus., D and Silenieks, J. eds. African Literature: New Masks. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press.
Lewis, D. 1992. "Myths of Motherhood and Power: The Construction of 'Black Woman' in Literature." English in Africa, 19, 1.
McWilliams, S. 1991. "Tsitsi Dangramebga's Nervous Conditions: At the Crossroads of Feminism and Post-colonialism." World Literature Written in English, 31, 1.
Metcalf, R. 1989. "Liberation of Female Consciousness in African Literature", in Ngara, E. and Morrison, A. eds. Literature, Language and the Nation: Proceedings of the Second General Conference of the Association of University Teachers of Literature and Language (ATOLL), University of Zimbabwe, 1987. Harare: Baobab.
Muhammed, D. 1985. “Women and the Family: Contributions from a Hausa Poet”, in Imam, A., Pittin, R. and Omole, H. 1985. Women and the Family in Nigeria. Dakar: CODESRIA.
Muthoni, W. 1989. "Women in Action: A Socio-Economic Survey of Women as Seen by Black Francophone Women Writers." Journal of Eastern African Research and Development, Vol 19:172–186.
Nasta, S. Ed. 1992. Motherlands: Black Women's Writing from Africa, Caribbean and South Asia. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Nfah-Abbenyi, J. 1994. "Reflections of an African Woman." Racism and Gender, Special Issue of Canadian Woman Studies, 14, 2 (Spring).
Ngcobo, L. 1986. "The African Woman Writer," Petersen, K. and Rutherford, A. eds. A Double Colonisation: Colonial and Post-Colonial Women's Writing. Oxford: Dangeroo Press.
Ngcobo, L. 1988. "African Motherhood: Myth and Reality", in Petersen, K. H. ed. Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers Conference. Uppsala, Sweden: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Seminar Proceedings.
Nnaemeka, O. 1990. "Mariama Ba: Parallels, Convergence and Interior Space." Feminist Issues (Spring).
Nnaemeka, O. 1994. "From Orality to Writing: African Women Writers and the Re(Inscription) of Womanhood." Research in African Literatures, 25, 4:137–157.
Nzegwu, N. 1995. "Recovering Igbo Women's Traditions for Development: The Case of Ikporo Onitsha", in Nussbaum, M. and Glover, J. eds. Women, Culture and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ogundipe-Leslie, M. 1987. "The Female Writer and Her Commitment", in Jones, E. ed. Women in African Literature Today. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Ojo-Ade, F. 1987. "Female Writers, Male Critics", in Jones, E. D. ed. African Literature Today: Recent Trends in the Novel. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Otukunefor, H. and Obiagele, N. Eds. 1989. Nigerian Female Writers. A Critical Perspective. Lagos: Malthouse.
Petersen, K. 1986. "Unpopular Opinions: Some African Women Writers", in Petersen, K. and Rutherford, A. eds. A Double Colonization: Colonial and Post-Colonial Women's Writing. Oxford: Dangaroo Press.
Petersen, K. and Rutherford, A. Eds. 1991. Into the Nineties: Post-Colonial Women's Writing. Sydney, Australia: Dangaroo Press.
Schipper, M. 1987. "Mother Africa on a Pedestal: The Male Heritage in African Literature and Criticism", in Jones, E. ed. Women in African Literature Today. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Smith, E. 1986. "Images of Women in African Literature: Some Examples of Inequality in the Colonial Period", in Davies, C. and Graves, A. eds. Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Solberg, R. 1983. "The Woman of Black Africa, Buchi Emecheta: The Woman's Voice in the New Nigerian Novel." English Studies, 64, 3.
Stavropoulos, P. 1994. "African Women's Fiction and the Politics of the Everyday." African Studies Review and Newsletter (Australia), 16, 2:8–15.
Stratton, F. 1988. "The Shallow Grave: Archtypes of Female Experience in African Fiction." Research in African Literatures. 19, 2:143–169.
Stratton, F. 1994. Contemporary African Literature and the Politics of Gender. New York/London: Routledge.
Wallace, K. 1985. "Women and Identity: A Black Francophone Female Perspective." Sage, 2,1 (Spring).
White, L. 1994. "Anthologies About Women in Africa." Canadian Journal of African Studies, 28, 1:127–133.
Wilentz, G. 1992. Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Williams, S. 1991. "Some Implications of Womanist Theory", in Harrow, K. ed. Crisscrossing Boundaries in African Literatures. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press/African Literature Association. Annual Selected Papers of the African Literature Association, 1986.