scholarly journals ‘I was a Girl of my Time’: A feminist literary analysis of representations of time and gender in selected contemporary South African fiction by women

Literator ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Murray
Keyword(s):  
Women Characters ◽  
South African ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Critical Scrutiny ◽  
And Gender

This article offers a feminist literary analysis of selected contemporary South African texts by women writers in order to explore how they represent female characters’ engagement with conventional understandings of time and its chronological and linear progression. These engagements are represented as being particularly fraught for women characters as they find themselves constrained by various temporally located constructions of femininity even as they attempt to heed the temporally dislocated voices of gendered trauma that consistently speak through their bodies. In this article, my focus will be on Bridget Pitt’s novel, Notes from the Lost Property Department (2015), Elleke Boehmer’s The Shouting in the Dark (2015) and Mohale Mashigo’s The Yearning (2016). Despite frequent references to the importance of temporality in making sense of the experiences of the female protagonists, there has been a dearth of scholarly attention to the complexities of the intersections between gender, time and trauma in contemporary South African fiction by women. While gender violence and trauma are topics that have received extensive critical scrutiny in South African literary studies, this article demonstrates that the inclusion of temporality in the analytical framework enables a richer and more nuanced reading of the experiences of the female characters in the selected texts.

Women and Gender in the Apocrypha

2021 ◽  
pp. 476-497
Author(s):  
Sara Parks
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Ancient Text ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
Women’S History

In this piece, Sara Parks examines women and gender in the Apocrypha and their adjacent texts. Parks highlights key shifts in the last fifty years in the study of apocryphal female characters, women’s history, and, more recently, theorized gender. She addresses methods for the reconstruction of women’s lived experiences from antique texts written overwhelmingly by and for men, when the nature of the ancient evidence is far from ideal for answering contemporary questions. Parks highlights several key apocryphal texts that have been studied for their female protagonists, but points out that, as masculinity is also under construction in the texts, the question of gender is applicable to every ancient text and artifact. Beyond the analysis of female protagonists and the quest for women’s history, gender is a lens through which all historical and literary analysis should be approached.

What Are Women’s Rights Good For? Contesting and Negotiating Gender Cultures in Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Van Allen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Good For ◽  
And Gender

Abstract:Currently, feminist activists are engaged in problematizing and reframing “rights” claims in southern Africa. This article discusses three cases of such activism, all of which show the limitations but also the potential of using rights claims to transform gender cultures and gain economic and gender justice. These cases involve the successful challenge to the gender discriminatory 1982 Botswana Citizenship Act; the policy shift of Women and Law in Southern Africa from a focus on legal rights advocacy to a synthesis of rights and kinship-based claims; and initiatives by South African gender activists to confront the contradiction between the country’s constitutional guarantees of women’s rights and high levels of gender violence.

scholarly journals Speech behavior of women characters in representation of the concept FAMILY in in the dramaturgical discourse of Wendy Wasserstein

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (14) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Yu. Ostropalchenko
Keyword(s):  
Women Characters ◽  
Age Factors ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Dramatic Works ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
American Society ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Wendy Wasserstein

The article is devoted to the study and systematization of the speech behavior of women in the representation of the concept FAMILY in the communicative space of the characters of the modern American dramatic discourse on the example of the plays of Wendy Wasserstein. The dynamics of gender markers reveals trends in the cognitive system in the axiological paradigm of American dramatic discourse. Communicative practices of the characters of dramatic works reflect the stereotypical behavior of male and female characters in different situations, which allows to study the specifics of female and male language behavior of a particular society. In studying this specificity, researchers often turn to linguoconceptology. Studies of the subject’s linguistic behavior in line with the anthropocentric paradigm allow linguists to study the processes occurring at the time of the creation of a linguistic phenomenon, which reflects cultural, gender, social and age factors. Any of the listed aspects affects the communication strategies of the subject, which makes it possible to study the linguistic activity of the broadcaster from the point of view of linguocultural, conceptual and gender approaches. Conceptual fields based on replicas of female characters in modern plays by American playwright Wendy Wasserstein are analysed. Communicative strategies of speech behavior of female characters in dramatic discourse indicate the linguistic and cultural features of the language of communicators, which suggests the existence of a unique language culture of American society, which was formed under the influence of accepted norms in society. The main concepts of the playwright’s discourse “Family” and “Career”, which are verbalized through a number of examples, are analysed.

scholarly journals Killing "woman" : gender and violence in selected plays by Sheila Callaghan and Marisa Wegrzyn

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kate Busselle
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Women Characters ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Gender Performance ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Representations Of Women

One of the most popular manifestations of spectacle in the theatre is violence. Frequently, violence on the stage manifests in the form of violence towards women at the hands of men. As a woman violence and intimacy designer, I wanted to find works that challenged and subverted this popular staging and question what those works have to say about gender, violence, and gender performance. Two playwrights who are challenging long-held dramatic representations of women and violence are playwrights Sheila Callaghan and Marisa Wegrzyn. Callaghan and Wegrzyn are two of the founders of the Kilroys, a group of femme-identifying literary managers, playwrights and producers living in Los Angeles, California, who organized in 2013 to promote the work of female and trans playwrights. Not only do their most representative works contain several acts of violence committed by women characters, but the nature of these portrayals of violence strays from "traditional" representations of violence. Using a range of relevant theoretical lenses, I will analyze four representative plays -- Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential and That Pretty Pretty; or, the Rape Play and Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo and Killing Women to investigate how these works disrupt essentialist notions of gender and identity, with special attention to the implications and meanings of their dramatic representation of onstage acts of violence committed by women. Through critical analysis of these works, this dissertation seeks to increase understanding of how these performances of violence challenge heteronormative notions of gender. As the context in which these violent acts occur is crucial, this dissertation analyzes the gendered implications of the setting, plot, and characterizations of each work. Additionally, this dissertation explores how designing the violence within these moments may help reinforce the gender disruption created by Callaghan and Wegrzyn.

Reframing Xenophobia in South Africa as Colour-Blind: The Limits of the Afro Phobia Thesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Black African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Online Newspaper ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Realistic Conflict Theory

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.

Maritime Fantasies and Gender Space in Three Shakespearean Comedies

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Wai Fong Cheang
Keyword(s):  
Female Characters ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Twelfth Night ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Gender Space ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender And Space

Abstract Laden with sea images, Shakespeare‘s plays dramatise the maritime fantasies of his time. This paper discusses the representation of maritime elements in Twelfth Night, The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice by relating them to gender and space issues. It focuses on Shakespeare‘s creation of maritime space as space of liberty for his female characters.

THE SINS OF THE FATHER: GENDER- BASED VIOLENCE IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Snodgrass
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Women ◽  
South African ◽  
African Women ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
South African Women

This article explores the complexities of gender-based violence in post-apartheid South Africa and interrogates the socio-political issues at the intersection of class, ‘race’ and gender, which impact South African women. Gender equality is up against a powerful enemy in societies with strong patriarchal traditions such as South Africa, where women of all ‘races’ and cultures have been oppressed, exploited and kept in positions of subservience for generations. In South Africa, where sexism and racism intersect, black women as a group have suffered the major brunt of this discrimination and are at the receiving end of extreme violence. South Africa’s gender-based violence is fuelled historically by the ideologies of apartheid (racism) and patriarchy (sexism), which are symbiotically premised on systemic humiliation that devalues and debases whole groups of people and renders them inferior. It is further argued that the current neo-patriarchal backlash in South Africa foments and sustains the subjugation of women and casts them as both victims and perpetuators of pervasive patriarchal values.

Feminist Shakespeares: Adapting Shakespeare for a Modern Audience in the Hogarth Shakespeare Project

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Etman
Keyword(s):  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Adaptation Theory ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
The Winter's Tale ◽  
Winter's Tale ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Female Characterization

The Hogarth Shakespeare Project presents a way to view Shakespeare’s plays through a different lens. These books allow for a feminist reading of Shakespeare, looking at some of Shakespeare’s ill-treated female characters to construct a new idea of female characterization. Three of the plays adapted, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew, were adapted by female authors. By investigating how these plays are being adapted for a more contemporary audience, with modern conceptions of feminism and gender roles, we can gain insight as to how these concepts have changed since Shakespeare’s time. By looking at these modern adaptations, we can interrogate how modern audiences as a whole conceptualize and, potentially, idealize Shakespeare, as well as understanding the progression of treatment of women in contemporary culture since Shakespeare’s time. The novels addressed in this project are The Gap of Time by Jeannette Winterson, Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, and Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. The project concludes that, of the three, Vinegar Girl does the most effective job addressing the problematic aspects of its adapted play in a new way, distinguishing it from previous adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew. This project also investigates the role that adaptation theory plays in addressing Shakespeare adaptations, particularly the Hogarth Shakespeare Project.

Coloniality of White Feminism and Its Transphobia: A Comment on Burt

2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512199133
Author(s):  
Nishant Upadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Gender Violence ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Epistemological Framework

In this comment, I challenge Burt’s colonial epistemological framework in her theorizations of sex, gender, and transness. Drawing upon anti-racist, decolonial, and trans of color feminisms, I argue that transphobia is inherent to white feminisms due to its roots in colonialism. Heteropatriarchy and cisnormativity are products of colonialism, and feminists who espouse transphobic discourses invariably reproduce colonial and white supremacist frameworks of patriarchy and gender violence.

Feminist Praxis and Gender Violence

2020 ◽  
pp. 411-426
Author(s):  
Claire M. Renzetti ◽  
Margaret Campe
Keyword(s):  
Gender Violence ◽  
And Gender
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document