Madness in black women's writing. Reflections from four texts: a question of Power, the joys of Motherhood, Anowa and possessing the secret of joy.

From: Ahfad Journal | Date: June 1, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

There is a moral and intellectual responsibility to understand how and why women loose touch with reality and how this malady can be prevented. African and African American women writers have addressed the theme of madness in literary texts. This review paper looks at four texts: Bessie Head's "A question of Power", Buchi Emecheta's "The joys of Motherhood", Ama Ataa Aidoo's "Anowa" and Alice Walker's "Possessing the Secret of Joy". It attempts to define madness from a literary perspective and analyze the circumstances that lead to main protagonist's failure to cope with life and ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Awakening African Women: The Dynamics of Change
; Awakening African Women: The Dynamics of Change, by Ginette...29.99. Ginette Curry's Awakening African Women: the Dynamics of Change is a comparative...decades. The study maps how West African women are represented in film and novels...
African women push for equality
; African women push for equality ETHIOPIA--They produce...brunt in the continent's wars. Yet African women have practically no say in the economic...change their position in the world, African women gathered last week in the Ethiopian...
Less Than One and Double: A Feminist Reading of African Women's Writing
; ...One and Double: A Feminist Reading of African Women's Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann...demonstrating his extensive knowledge of African women's literature, African cinema, and radical...fair to me that in her readings of African women's writings, Irene d'Almeida, as an...
Daughters of Anowa: African Women & Patriarchy.(Book Review)
; * Daughters of Anowa: African Women & Patriarchy, Mercy Amba...about how liberation relates to African women and how women relate to the African...the sweeping generalization of African women and their social myths, which...
Akina Mama wa Afrika: Akina Mama wa Afrika is an international development organisation for African women, based in the UK with an Africa regional office in Kampala, Uganda.(AFRICA ACTION)
; ...Mama wa Afrika means 'solidarity among African women', signifying African sisterhood. The...United Kingdom, to create space for African women to organise and build links with each...information, advocacy and training forum for African women, building their leadership capacities...
Zenzele: African Women's Self-Help Organizations in South Africa, 1927-1998
; ...1920s, were founded by mission-educated African women who sought to improve the lives of rural African women by enhancing their subsistence farming...health care. Unlike associations for African women in British colonial Africa, Zenzele...
African Women's Conference To be Held in Tanzania
; A four-day African women's conference will be open here...and strengthen unity among the African women leaders. The Tanzanian Daily News...will be attended by more than 100 African women ministers and parliamentarians...
WRITING AFRICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY WITH MALE SOURCES: POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS
; ...European officials. The task of studying African women's history using colonial sources is...contact between colonial officials and African women was relatively limited, and often indirect...during the colonial era. For their part, African women guarded cultural and political ...
African Women's Day Celebrated
; African women celebrated the African Women's Day here on thursday amid calls for peace and stability...celebrations which coincided with the closing of the eighth Pan African Women's Organisation (PAWO) congress which started on July 28...
African Women Leaders Condemn Violence Against
; African women ministers and parliamentarians today...conference in Dar es Salaam this evening, African women leaders said that preventive diplomacy...the continent. They called upon all African women to stand up unanimously for peace on...