African Women's Writing: Multiple Subjectivities and the Power of Storytelling

Abstract

This thesis examines the development of multiple subjectivities in the novels of Tsitsi Dangarembga, Buchi Emecheta, and Yaa Gyasi. Through this research I argue that African women's writing in fiction gives evidence to women's positions as custodians of history. Stories and narratives present African women's theorizing through research tools grounded in the history of their communities. I contend that the novels chosen for this study resist the homogenous and imperialistic understanding of African literature. Each writer's aesthetic style and play with language points towards the significance of the African female literary tradition. The authors draw on new possibilities to present complex, contradictory and often intertwined experiences of women. Over the course of this thesis, I closely analyze three novels: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Second-Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta, and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. My reading builds upon the importance of storytelling in relation to women's solidarity networks and communal relationships.