scholarly journals Drawing on the Past, Regenerating the Present: A Comparison of the Works of Ayi Kwei Armah and Nicolás Guillén

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Setor Novieto
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Nicolas Guillen ◽  
Ayi Kwei Armah ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Representations Of Women

<p>Novelist Ayi Kwei Armah and poet Nicolás Guillén are, respectively, Ghanaian and Cuban writers who embody the efforts of mid-twentieth-century artists to depict the day-to-day socio-political conditions and struggles of societies seeking to move beyond histories of racial and economic oppression. Both engage powerfully and controversially with ongoing debates around damaging colonial histories and disappointing contemporary realities. The achievement of independence did not usher in the new, improved nations sought by way of struggle and suffering in either country. Uncompromisingly, Armah’s and Guillén’s works portray both the irredeemable parts of colonial histories and those that can be put to the benefit of the present, together with the tension that this disparity between expectation and achievement engenders.  Granted the varied nature of the subject matter of the works of the two authors and the seeming lack of relation between them, this study makes use of a selection of theoretical frameworks to find common ground for analysing their work. The analysis of Nicolás Guillén’s poetry is based on concepts fundamental to Latin American social and cultural criticism, notably, the ideology of whitening or blanqueamiento, cultural mixing or mestizaje, and feminist criticism. The study of Ayi Kwei Armah’s first novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) employs socio-cultural theories including traditional Ghanaian concepts such sankofa and the Akan symbol of adinkra, together with Jean Paul Sartre’s concept of the “engaged writer.”  This thesis argues that, in spite of their different national and ethnic backgrounds, both writers draw on traditional aspects of African culture to provide the impetus for social and cultural regeneration in their societies. Critics have read Armah as presenting disillusioned and decadent images of Ghana and promoting limited roles for women in his work. Guillén too has been portrayed by critics as offering an objectified representation of women in his poetry of the 1920s and 1930s and has been accused of ignoring, as a poet of meztizaje or ethnic mixture, the issues of Blacks and Blackness. This thesis contests these limiting critical positions, arguing that the writers’ representations of women, Blacks and Blackness are more positive and progressive than has been allowed. Acknowledging the burden of racist histories, the false promise of postcolonial liberation, the blatant corruption and the unrealised expectations of their times, they nevertheless allow for the possibility of regeneration in the societies they both dissect and, in part, restore.</p>

scholarly journals Drawing on the Past, Regenerating the Present: A Comparison of the Works of Ayi Kwei Armah and Nicolás Guillén

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Setor Novieto
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Nicolas Guillen ◽  
Ayi Kwei Armah ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Representations Of Women

<p>Novelist Ayi Kwei Armah and poet Nicolás Guillén are, respectively, Ghanaian and Cuban writers who embody the efforts of mid-twentieth-century artists to depict the day-to-day socio-political conditions and struggles of societies seeking to move beyond histories of racial and economic oppression. Both engage powerfully and controversially with ongoing debates around damaging colonial histories and disappointing contemporary realities. The achievement of independence did not usher in the new, improved nations sought by way of struggle and suffering in either country. Uncompromisingly, Armah’s and Guillén’s works portray both the irredeemable parts of colonial histories and those that can be put to the benefit of the present, together with the tension that this disparity between expectation and achievement engenders.  Granted the varied nature of the subject matter of the works of the two authors and the seeming lack of relation between them, this study makes use of a selection of theoretical frameworks to find common ground for analysing their work. The analysis of Nicolás Guillén’s poetry is based on concepts fundamental to Latin American social and cultural criticism, notably, the ideology of whitening or blanqueamiento, cultural mixing or mestizaje, and feminist criticism. The study of Ayi Kwei Armah’s first novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) employs socio-cultural theories including traditional Ghanaian concepts such sankofa and the Akan symbol of adinkra, together with Jean Paul Sartre’s concept of the “engaged writer.”  This thesis argues that, in spite of their different national and ethnic backgrounds, both writers draw on traditional aspects of African culture to provide the impetus for social and cultural regeneration in their societies. Critics have read Armah as presenting disillusioned and decadent images of Ghana and promoting limited roles for women in his work. Guillén too has been portrayed by critics as offering an objectified representation of women in his poetry of the 1920s and 1930s and has been accused of ignoring, as a poet of meztizaje or ethnic mixture, the issues of Blacks and Blackness. This thesis contests these limiting critical positions, arguing that the writers’ representations of women, Blacks and Blackness are more positive and progressive than has been allowed. Acknowledging the burden of racist histories, the false promise of postcolonial liberation, the blatant corruption and the unrealised expectations of their times, they nevertheless allow for the possibility of regeneration in the societies they both dissect and, in part, restore.</p>

Seeing Women, Strengthening Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Hinojosa ◽  
Miki Caul Kittilson
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
The Impact

How does the more equitable representation of women in positions of power affect male and female citizens? We argue that the election of women to political office—particularly where women’s presence is highly visible to the public—strengthens the connections between women and the democratic process. For women, seeing more “people like me” in politics changes attitudes and orientations toward the democratic process. Substantial variation persists across Latin America in gender gaps in political engagement and political support. To assess the effects that women’s officeholding has on these, we pair comparative survey data from Latin American countries with case study evidence from Uruguay. The Uruguayan case offers a unique laboratory for testing the impact of women’s representation in elected positions of power on political engagement and support. Our panel survey of Uruguayan citizens reveals that the expected gender gaps in political knowledge, political interest, and other forms of political engagement were alive and well six weeks before the elections. Yet, just six weeks following the election—after the use of a gender quota had led to a doubling of women’s representation in the Senate—those gender gaps had largely disappeared or had significantly waned. Our findings indicate that far-reaching gender gaps can be overcome by more equitable representation in our political institutions.

scholarly journals Female Representation in Select Films of Frank Rajah Arase: Evidence of Male Chauvinist Tendencies in the Ghanaian Film Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-41
Author(s):  
Osakue S. Omoera ◽  
Charles C. Okwuowulu
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Observation Methods ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Video Films

There has been constant resonance of feminine image misrepresentation in most narratives since the (re)invention of video-films in Nigeria, Ghana, and indeed across the African continent. In spite of the binary struggle between the (presumed) chauvinist filmmakers and their feminist counterparts, masculinity always (re)emerges in new forms or topoi to dominate femininity. Consequently, there seems to be a paradigm shift on the (mis)representation of women that reinforces Laura Mulvey’s sexual voyeuristic objectification of the feminine gender as reflected in near-nude costumes as well as sexually larded scenes that are common sights in African films, particularly those from Ghana. Employing the historical-analytic and observation methods, this article examines three selected films:  The Maid I Hired (2010), Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and To Love a Prince (2014) by Frank Rajah Arase (FRA), an African filmmaker of Benin (Edo) extraction who largely operates in the Diaspora, to foreground and highlight the voyeuristic imprints in Ghanaian films (Ghallywood), which tend to demean the feminine gender in the context of African culture that hegemonizes the male folk.

scholarly journals Study of the Migratory Return: Analysis to the Condition of the Returned Migrant in the Educational and Labor Reintegration and the Entrepreneurship as an Area of Opportunity

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Iris E. Betanzos
Keyword(s):  
International Migration ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Third ◽  
Evolution And Development ◽  
Theoretical Line ◽  
Indispensable Tool ◽  
Latin American Countries

Studies on the educational and labor reintegration of migrants returned to Latin American countries have gained importance due to the economic and social implications of rehabilitation. In this article, the return of the migrant was considered part of the migration process. An exploratory research of publications in different international journals was carried out; when consulting the referenced articles, it was identified that at the time of return the migrant presents and perceives a moral, social, educational and work imbalance. From the deficiencies found in the theoretical lines studied - Educational reinsertion, Labor reintegration - the third theoretical line was included the importance of relating the concept of entrepreneurship as an area of opportunity for returned migrants. The results of the analysis of the studies and theoretical frameworks of international migration, showed great similarities of the phenomenon in different geographical spaces, being an indispensable tool to understand their different forms, evolution and development both in the countries of origin and destination.

‘Business Imperialism’ and Argentina, 1875–1900: A Theoretical Note

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Jones
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
The State ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
South American ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
British State

The facts are by now sufficiently clear for it to be common ground in any discussion of late nineteenth-century imperialism that the British State was disinclined to interfere on behalf of British capitalists with Latin American interests when these were threatened by local firms or States. Equally it is clear that British capitalists did not invest in Argentina in the belief that, by so doing, they were actively assisting the foreign policy of the British State. The State provided no grounds for this belief and no inducement to invest, and had it done so it is unlikely that the capitalists concerned – a pretty liberal bunch by and large – would have responded to any greater extent than they felt was consistent with their economic advantage. Again, there were not, in Britain, territorially ambitious militarists and aristocrats with their sights set on the South American republics. This element was quite adequately catered for in the Empire. In short, the models of imperialism favoured by Hobson, Schumpeter, and other conspiracy theorists, however appropriate they may be in particular cases, cannot be generalized and have very little relevance to Argentina.

scholarly journals Proverbs and Patriarchy: Analysis of Linguistic Prejudice and Representation of Women in Traditional Akan Communities of Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Gyan ◽  
Eunice Abbey ◽  
Michael Baffoe
Keyword(s):  
Oral Traditions ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Patriarchal Culture ◽  
Phenomenological Interpretation ◽  
The World ◽  
African Context ◽  
Linguistic Prejudice ◽  
The Way

Discourses govern the phenomenological interpretation of our everyday existence and influence both our way of thinking and our relationship with one another in the world. Undoubtedly, popular sayings and proverbs mediate the way of being in African context. This paper examines the role of proverbs and wise sayings in the African culture. This paper attempts to analyze the representation of women in sampled Akan proverbs and the ways in which these proverbs institutionalize the position, identity, and roles of women in traditional Akan communities of Ghana. This paper suggests that oral traditions are used in the systematic perpetuation of patriarchal culture, gender inequities, and inequality. Therefore, it recommends the revolutionalization of oral traditions to assist in the deinstitutionalization of the prevailing patriarchal discourses and culture in traditional Akan communities of Ghana.

scholarly journals Sketching women: a corpus-based approach to representations of women's agency in political Internet corpora in Arabic and English

Corpora ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamran Karimullah
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Women's Agency ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Women’S Agency ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Discursive Representations ◽  
Gendered Agency ◽  
Representations Of Women

In this paper, I use methods from corpus linguistics to examine patterns pertaining to the representation of women in online Arabic- and English-language political corpora. I highlight the discursive differences and similarities that characterise the two corpora. Using word sketches, I identify representational categories in each corpus that are indexed by patterns of collocation. Analysis of semantic preference and prosody in each corpus reveals the ways in which women are represented. An exploration of the representations of women and gendered agency in both corpora reveals incongruities between the message of women's empowerment that the outlets promote and the implicit discursive representations of gender and gendered agency.

scholarly journals Information Science in Dialogue with Archival Science, Library Science and Museum Studies: The Recent Brazilian Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1A(115A)) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Carlos Alberto Ávila Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Archival Science ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Concept Of Information

Purpose/Thesis: In this article we discuss the theoretical common ground of archival science, library science and museum studies share with one another and with information science.Approach/Method: The article offers a systematic review of scholarship in each of the disciplines discussed, starting with foundational texts and progressing through different periods, geographical areas, and traditions of thought.Results and conclusions: We present the historical context in which the three disciplines were established and identify the twentieth-century theoretical developments that resulting rejection of the previously dominant paradigm. We conclude that the concept of information as studied recently may favor the advancement of theoretical perspectives in the three areas and points to the possibility of its epistemological dialogue.Research limitations: The literature review focused on the studies that had the most significant impact on Brazilian scholarship. It could be extended to other countries, and other theories.Practical implications: The results of the presented research may provide a conceptual basis for university courses in archival science, library science and museum studies, as they already do in Brazil. They may also inspire a comparison with other countries.Originality/Value: There are only few studies which combine the analysis of archival science, library science and museum studies; even less relate these disciplines to information science. We believe that considering the theoretical frameworks of all these disciplines together will be beneficial for all.

World Music and the Black Atlantic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleysia K. Whitmore
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
World Music ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New West ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
The 1960S

In the mid-twentieth century, African musicians took up Cuban music as their own. They claimed it as a marker of black Atlantic connections and of cosmopolitanism untethered from European colonial relations. Today, Cuban/African bands popular in Africa in the 1960s and ’70s have moved into the world music scene in Europe and North America, and world music producers and musicians have created new West African–Latin American collaborations expressly for this market niche. This book follows two of these bands, Orchestra Baobab and AfroCubism, and the industry and audiences that surround them—from musicians’ homes in West Africa, to performances in Europe and North America, to record label offices in London. This book examines the intensely transnational experiences of musicians, industry personnel, and audiences as they collaboratively produce, circulate, and consume music in a specific post-colonial era of globalization. Musicians, industry personnel, and audiences work with and push against one another as they engage in personal collaborations imbued with histories of global travel and trade. They move between and combine Cuban and Malian melodies, Norwegian and Senegalese markets, and histories of slavery and independence as they work together to create international commodities. Understanding the unstable and dynamic ways these peoples, musics, markets, and histories intersect elucidates how world music actors assert their places within, and produce knowledge about, global markets, colonial histories, and the black Atlantic. This book offers a nuanced view of a global industry that is informed and deeply marked by diverse transnational perspectives and histories of transatlantic exchange.

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