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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The New Woman phenomenon in selected works of Toni Morrison, Margaret Afuh and Eunice Ngongkum |
| Author: | Mutia, Rosalyn |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Periodical: | Annales de la Faculté des Arts, Lettres et Sciences Humaines |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Issue: | 13 |
| Pages: | 87-103 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Cameroon United States |
| Subjects: | women writers novels women literary criticism |
| Abstract: | This paper compares women's fiction from Cameroon and an African American woman writer's novel with respect to the so-called New Woman phenomenon. It argues that despite their differences, women writers across borders are unanimous in exposing and attempting to extirpate women's oppression. One way in which they do this, is by embracing the New Woman phenomenon, a feminist revolutionary ideal which emerged at the end of the 19th century. The New Woman was a modern figure with a multiple identity: feminist activist, social reformer, popular novelist, woman poet. She was also a fictional construct, a discursive response to the activities of the women's movement of the time. The texts compared are Margaret Afuh's 'Born before her time' (2003), Eunice Ngongkum's 'Manna of a lifetime and other stories' (2007) and Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' (1987). All three books show similar concerns with marriage, motherhood, voice versus voicelessness, and role attributions. They are also similar in depicting the image of a new woman capable of transcending social and cultural barriers to re-invent herself. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [ASC Leiden abstract] |