 | ISBN: 978-0-89410-884-6 $55.00 | |
| ISBN: 978-0-89410-892-1 $19.95 | ||
| 1999/260 pages | ||
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book
Now Available in Paperback!
Writings by francophone African women have moved to the forefront of the literary stage in the 1990s, as they have shifted from a literature of testimony and complaint to one of power. Rebellious Women reflects on this change and on its broad significance for African literature and society.Cazenave examines the mechanisms of rebellion within the emerging group of authors, who reject defeatist visions of a postcolonial Africa stricken with unsurmountable burdens, and who propose an alternative vision. She details their focus on marginalized characters and their daring exploration of themes hitherto considered either trivial or taboo—mother-daughter relationships, the inscription of female desire, sexual ethics—and also analyzes the provocative language they use to create a new political novel.
Through its rich analysis of new female voices, Rebellious Women establishes the innovativeness and central position of women’s writing in contemporary African literature.
Odile Cazenave is associate professor at MIT and adjunct associate professor at University of Tennessee.
"Sheds light on a number of intriguing Francophone authors who have been largely neglected in English-translation settings. Cazenave's work is theoretically solid yet will be accessible to a wide range of readers who are interested in learning more about these women and their writing, their motivations and their impact."—Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, H-Net
"Cazenave reveals a new generation of female writers with a more deliberate feminist agenda and a more militant rhetoric.... nicely balancing synopses of individual works and critical analysis of themes and tendencies, this book will be very valuable in libraries supporting the study of African literature."—Choice
From reviews of the French edition:
"Scholars and students of African literature will find Cazenave’s rich work on the new generation of African women writers, and on the process of writing in the feminine, quite illuminating and impressive in both the detail of the analysis and the breadth of the thesis."—Ruth Ohayon, The French Review