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The Resource Bessie Head : subversive identities in exile, Huma Ibrahim

Bessie Head : subversive identities in exile, Huma Ibrahim

Creator
Summary
  • One of the foremost African writers of our time, who dispelled the silence between colonial and feminist discourses by "talking back," Bessie Head at last gets her due in this first book-length, comprehensive study of her work. This book locates Head's unquestionable importance in the canon of African literature. Author Huma Ibrahim argues that unless we are able to look at the merging of women's sexual and linguistic identity with their political and gendered identity, the careful configurations created in Head's work will elude us. Ibrahim offers a series of thoughtful readings informed by feminist, diasporan, postcolonial, and poststructuralist insights and concerns. She identifies a theme she calls "exilic consciousness" - the desire to belong - and traces its manifestations through each phase of Head's work, showing how "women's talk" - a marginalized commodity in the construction of southern Africa - is differently embodied and evaluated
  • Bessie Head's works are frequently featured in courses in African literature, third-world literature, and fiction writing, but there is little critical material on them. Ibrahim offers readings of Head's novels When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power, as well as the collections Tales of Tenderness and Power, A Collector of Treasures, A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings, and The Cardinals, the histories Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind and A Bewitched Crossroad, and her letters to Robert Vigne collected in A Gesture of Belonging. In Head's exploration of oppressed people, especially women and those in exile, Ibrahim finds startling insights into institutional power relations. Head not only subverts Western hegemonic notions of the third-world woman but offers a critique of postcoloniality
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
Bessie Head : subversive identities in exile
Title
Bessie Head
Title remainder
subversive identities in exile
Statement of responsibility
Huma Ibrahim
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
  • One of the foremost African writers of our time, who dispelled the silence between colonial and feminist discourses by "talking back," Bessie Head at last gets her due in this first book-length, comprehensive study of her work. This book locates Head's unquestionable importance in the canon of African literature. Author Huma Ibrahim argues that unless we are able to look at the merging of women's sexual and linguistic identity with their political and gendered identity, the careful configurations created in Head's work will elude us. Ibrahim offers a series of thoughtful readings informed by feminist, diasporan, postcolonial, and poststructuralist insights and concerns. She identifies a theme she calls "exilic consciousness" - the desire to belong - and traces its manifestations through each phase of Head's work, showing how "women's talk" - a marginalized commodity in the construction of southern Africa - is differently embodied and evaluated
  • Bessie Head's works are frequently featured in courses in African literature, third-world literature, and fiction writing, but there is little critical material on them. Ibrahim offers readings of Head's novels When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power, as well as the collections Tales of Tenderness and Power, A Collector of Treasures, A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings, and The Cardinals, the histories Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind and A Bewitched Crossroad, and her letters to Robert Vigne collected in A Gesture of Belonging. In Head's exploration of oppressed people, especially women and those in exile, Ibrahim finds startling insights into institutional power relations. Head not only subverts Western hegemonic notions of the third-world woman but offers a critique of postcoloniality
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Ibrahim, Huma
Dewey number
823
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Index
index present
LC call number
PR9369.3.H4
LC item number
Z72 1996
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Head, Bessie
  • Feminism and literature
  • Women and literature
  • Africa, Southern
  • Exile (Punishment) in literature
  • Decolonization in literature
  • Social norms in literature
  • Exiles in literature
  • Head, Bessie
  • Féminisme et littérature
  • Femmes et littérature
  • Décolonisation dans la littérature
  • Exilés dans la littérature
  • Afrique australe dans la littérature
  • Head, Bessie
  • Südafrika <Staat>
Label
Bessie Head : subversive identities in exile, Huma Ibrahim
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-249) and index
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 252 pages)
Form of item
online
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)1028730289
Label
Bessie Head : subversive identities in exile, Huma Ibrahim
Link
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-249) and index
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 252 pages)
Form of item
online
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)1028730289

Subject

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