The feminisation of poverty and victimhood in Dangarembga's print oeuvre: Cyclical evocations of nervous conditions, survival, and agency
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Date
2022
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
Feminisation of poverty is a term that was coined by Diana Pearce in 1976 after observing an increased concentration of income poverty among women in America (Peterson, 1987). This term was applied in the analysis of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s oeuvre, mainly focusing on the victimhood, cyclical evocations of nervous conditions, survival strategies and agency that Zimbabwean women experienced and are still experiencing. This dissertation employed a qualitative desktop literary in the examination of four novels, Nervous Conditions (1988), The Book of Not (2006), This Mournable Body (2018) – which make up a trilogy spanning up to 30 years; and She No Longer Weeps (1987). The researcher employed Africana Womanism, STIWANISM, and Nego-feminism literary theories to underpin this study, from examining the complex position that African women face in the light of detrimental effects of colonisation and its impact and legacy as it integrates with traditional patriarchal structures as articulated in Dangarembga’s novels. Africana Womanism as a concept was used so as to accommodate the characteristics of the African society which are unique and different because of its cultural, political, historical and social backgrounds, as other feminisms are peculiar to their place of origin. STIWANISM understands the female struggle from the perspective of African feminism which is entirely dependent on the commitment from both sexes, and not a woman affair as emphasised by other feminisms. Nego-feminism places both genders side by side as men and women to try and negotiate their places in life and establish a harmonious co- existence, with the negative patriarchal structures melting away. The study analysed how the author used the novels to expose issues related to post- colonial conditions, gender inequalities, cultural limitations, female self- definition and struggle for survival. The study found that the women in the Shona society are presented diversely depending on the socio- cultural background. Dangarembga strategically captured a world before and after independent Zimbabwe (1980s), where her main theme were her two protagonists’ struggles to reshape women’s heterosexuality and femininity in a religiously conservative society adopted in a colonial era. The shared themes of womanhood that are depicted in all the texts are the need for a shift of women from the margins of the society to becoming priorities economically, socially, and culturally. This is the recurring theme whether the setting is in the 1980s or the 2000s, rural or urban; Shona women are still victims of the nervous conditions surrounding them.
Description
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy (Education)
Keywords
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Oeuvre, Feminisation of poverty, Africana womanism