Interface between gender myths and history in Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source (1994) and Marjorie Macgoye’s Coming to Birth (1986)
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
Culture is central to the understanding of gender relations. Yet, studies have not examined how history (as myth or its product) influences our perception of gender relations. This paper investigates how myth, as a function of language, constructs history. It specifically explains how myth is used to construct and determine gender through a close reading and textual analysis of Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source and Marjorie Macgoye’s Coming to Birth. The discussion is guided by Roland Barthes’ conceptualization of mythology and Judith Butler’s ideas on definition and cultural construction of gender and power, as well as authority in performance of gender. Findings showed that Ogola and Macgoye situate their fiction within the history and culture of the Luo people, who have traditional myths and legends that explain their existence. They invent characters and events that correspond to history, despite not being historical in themselves. The authors thus portray Africa as a rich combination of myth and history, their major characters embodying the essence of history, or battling it, or somehow relating with it through fantasy. In so doing, the authors engage in gender discourses, challenging patriarchy while highlighting the milestones achieved by women in time.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.displayStats.downloads##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
How to Cite
References
Apostel, L. (1981). African Philosophy Myth or Reality? Gent: StoryScientia.
Bamberger, J. (1974). The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society. M. Rosaldo, & L. Lamphere, (Eds.), Woman, Culture and Society (pp. 263-280). Stanford University Press.
Barthes, R. (1972). Mythologies. Paris: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Erickson, P. A., & Murphy, L. D. (2010). Readings for A history of anthropological theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Halpé, A. (2010). Between Myth and Meaning: The Function of Myth in Four Post-Colonial Novels (PhD Thesis). University of Toronto.
Jung, C. G. (1989). Analytical Psychology (William McGuire version). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kolawole, M. E. M. (1997). Womanism and African consciousness. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Kuria, J. M. M. (2001). The challenge of feminism in Kenya: Towards an Afrocentric worldview (Doctoral dissertation). University of Leeds.
Lassiter, J. E. (2000). African Culture and Personality: Bad Social Science, Effective Social Activism, or a Call to Reinvent Ethnology? African Studies Quarterly, 3(3), 1-21.
Lincoln, B. (1989). Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification. UK: Oxford University Press.
Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge (Vol. 10). University of Minnesota Press.
Martin, M. R. (2003). Native Women's Studies: Dialoguing with Community, with Academia and with Feminism (Doctoral dissertation). Faculty of Education-Simon Fraser University.
Macgoye, M. O. (1986) Coming to Birth. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
Mboya, T. M. (1997). The Woman and History in Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye’s fiction (M.Phil. Thesis). Moi University.
Steady, F. (2005). An Investigative Framework for Gender Research in Africa in the New Millennium. In Oyěwùmí O. (Eds.). African Gender Studies: A Reader (pp. 313-331). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.