Colonial Subjugation and Power Appropriation in Yvonne Vera’s Works
Main Article Content
Abstract
In spite of continuous research on colonial subjugation and power appropriation, little investigation has been carried out to interrogate the impact of colonialism on African men and how their narratives frame the lived experiences of the women in their societies on Vyonne Vera's works. This study focusses on how men's desire for power and control has forced them to try and conquer, subjugate, dominate and oppress women. Further, the study interrogates how the colonial laws edge the African man from the patriarchal power centre and how they project their frustrations and bitterness on women. This study therefore employed feminist and Mitchell Foucault’s thoughts on power in order to elucidate how the colonial disempowerment of African men forces them to vent their anger on women. The study found out that as men struggle to gain their patriarchal glory, they use repressive patriarchal policies and laws to subdue the weaker female characters whereby they end up destroying women as well as themselves. Further, the study reveals that in spite of the patriarchal injustices on women, men fails to gain their patriarchal glory.
Downloads
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-NC-SA) 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
Abel. G. (2013). Qualitative Research Methods. Nairobi: Kijabe Printring Press
Acholonu, C. (1988). “Budii Emecheta.” Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present Vo. 2. Abuja: Guardian Books Nigeria Limited, 216-222
Adichie, C. (2006). Purple Hibiscus. Nairobi: Kwani Trust
Adler, A. (1972). Understanding Human Nature. London: Routledge
Allen, J. (1992). “Motherhood: The Annihilation of Women”. In Marilyn PearsalL ed. Women and values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy, pp.91 - 101. Belmont Calif: Wordsworth.
AMM, (1998). The Housemaid. New York: Heinmann Educational Publishes
Anene, J. C. & Godfrey B. (1966). Eds. Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. Ibadan: Nelson.
Barstow, C. (2008). The power Differential and the Power Paradox: Avoiding Pittalls, Vol 110 No. 2, 265-284
Barstow, C (2007). Right use of power: The heart of ethics Co. Many Realms
Boehemer, E. (2005). Stories of women: Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation. Manchester UP, 2005.
Brownmiller, S. (1975). Against bur will: Men, Women and Rape. Simon & Schuster: New York
Bull L. Tales of the Nation: Feminist Nationalist or Patriotic Defining National History and Identity in Zimbabwe. Research Report No. 132 Uppsalla: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2004
Bull, L. Tales of the Nation: Feunist Nationalist or Patriatic History? Defining National History and Identfy in Zimbabwe. Research Report no 132 Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikaistituted, 2004.
Charles, R. (1976). The Novel in the Third World, Washington, D.C. Inscape.
Chondorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of Mothering: psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. University of California: Berkeley.
Cixous, H. (1987). The newly Born Woman. Manchester: U.P
Coates, J. (1986). Women, Men and Language. London: Longman
Coundouriotis, E. (2005) “Self-inflicted Wounds in Yvonne Vera’s Butterfly Burning.” World Literature .pp. 64-67.
Daly, M. (1973). Beyond God the Father: Towards a philosophy of women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press.
Daugaremba, T. Nervous Conditions. 1988. London: Women’s Press 2001.
Daymond, M. J. (1996). (Ed). South African. Feminisms: Writing, Theory, and Criticism. New York: Garland Publishers
De Beouvoir, S. (1974). The Second Sex. Trans and ed. H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books
Dinnerstein, D. (1977). The mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise. San Francisco: Harper Colophon
Dwokin, A. (1981). Pornography: Men possessing Women. London: Women Press
Eagleton, T. (Ed). (1996). Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader. Blackwells.
Ellyson, S. L. Dovidio, J.F (EDs) (1985) Power, Dominance, and non-verval behaviour. New York: Springer-Verlag sembene Ousmane 1970(1962). God’s Bits of wood, trans-Francis prince, Heinmann, London.
Elshtain, J. B. (1982). Feminism, Faculty and Community. Princeton University Press:
Emerson, R. M. (1962) Power dependence relations American Sociological Review, 27, 31-41.
Eustace, P. & Marjorie, J. (eds), Women in African Literature Today. London: OUP
Fanon, F. (1961). The Wretched of the Earth, trans.constance Farington. London: Peuguin
Farrar S. (1998). African Writing book review, Butterfly Burning, Feminist Literature Yvonne Vera. Seattle: Amazon
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2000), Edition: 1st. Butterfly Burning. Paperback, pp.144Cary, N. and Larry G., eds (1988). In “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the interpretation of Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press
Fiske, S.T (1993). Controlling either people: the impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48,621-628.
Fonchingong, C. C. 2006). Unbending Gender Narratives in African Literature. Journal of Lnternational Women's Studies, 8(l), 135-14
Foucault, M. (1965). Madness and Civilization. A history of insanity in age of Reason. New York: Panthaeon Books
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish.The Birth of the prison. NewYork: Penguin Books.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power and Knowledge. Ed. C. Gordon. New York: Pantheon.
Foucault, M. (1982 .The Subject and Power. Chicago Journals, vol.8, No.4, pp.777-795.
French, M. (1985). Beyond Power: on Women, Men and Morals. New York: Summit Books
Freud, S. 1989. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. In the Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay, 594-7. London Vintage
Fwangyil, G. (2006). A Reformist approach to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s t Hibiscus. Indexed African als online.Vol.5, pp261-274.
Gaidzanwa, R. (1985). Images of Women in Zimbabwea/i Literature. Harare: College Press
Greene, R (1982). The 48 Laws of power. New York: Penguine Books.
Ifeyinwa J. 0. (1972). Speaking for the Voiceless: Yvonne Vera’s Characters and Social Conditions. Awka: Nnamdi Azikiwe University
Iragaray, L. (1980).’’When Our Lips Speak Together”. “Signs”; Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 6(1).
Jaggar, A. (1983). Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, N.J Rowman and Allanheld pp. 249-302
Kant, I. (1958). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. Harper Torchbooks: New York
Katrak, H. (1987). “Womanhood and Motherhood: Variations on a Theme in Selected Novels of Buchi Emecheta”. Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 21.1.159-170
Katrin, B. (2005). Female Identity in Contemporary Zimbabwean Fiction. Bayreuth: Breintinger
Keltner, D. (2008). The Power Paradox. Greater Good Magazine, 4(3) Winter.
Kothari, C.R (2004). Research Methodology: methods and techniques. New Delhi: New age International Publishers Ltd.
Kristeva, J. (1 982). Desire in Language. Cdumbia University: New York.
Kristeva, J. Revolution Poetic language. Trans Margaret Waller. New York: Columbia UP 1984.
Lavelle, R. (2003). Yvonne Vera’s Without a Name: Reclaiming That Which Has Been Taken.
Marechera, D. The house of Hunger. London: Heinmann, 1978
Mark, K. (1983). “Displacement and the Discourse of Woman”. Displacement: Derrida and After. Bloomington: Indiana UP
Mccall, D. K., Simon de Bouvoir. The second sex, and Jean Paul Sartre. Signs Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5(2), 1979 — 1980, pp. 209 — 223.
Midika, T. (2016). Trauma in selected East Africa Fiction and life writing on Civil war. Unpublished.
Millet, K. (1970). Sexual Politics. New York : Garden city.
Mitchell, J. (1974). Psychoanalysis and Feminism. New York: Vintage Books
Moi, T. (1988) Feminist literary criticism: in modern literary Theory. A comparative introduction . 2nd Ed. Ann Jafferson Lanham, MD: Barnes Imports, 19-87
Muponde and Taruvinga (2007) History, Gender and the problem of presentation in the Novels of Yvonne Vera Maponde and Taruvinga, 155-178
Muponde, R. The sight of the Dead Body: Dyctopia and resistance in the versa W.A. Maponde and Taruvinga 117 -126
Narayan, 4 (2014) Dislocating cultures; Identities, traditions and third word feminism. London U.K. Rourledge.
New York.
O’Brien, M. (1981). The Politics of Reproduction. Routledge & Kegan Paul: Boston.
Obi, N. (2012). The nation and subaltern in Yvonne Vera’s Butterfly Burning.
Ogundipe-Leslie, M. (1987). The female writer in Eldred Johns Trenton, N.J.: Africa World P.
Ogundipe-Leslie, M. (1994). Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World P.
Opondo, R. (2010). “Power in psychic landscape”, Kenya: unpublished.
Palmer, E. (1983). “The Feminine Point of View in Buchi Emecheta’s. The Joys of Motherhood.” Africa Literature Today 13. Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. New York: Holmes and Meier,.
Palmer, E. (ed.) (1972). An Introduction to the African Novel, London, Heinemann.
Palmer, F. (1999). Women’s studies encyclopedia. Greenwood publishing Group: United States of America.
Palmer, F. (2009). Beyond freedom and constraint: Alternative intimacies in the novels of Yvonne Vera, Calixthe Beyala, and Amma Darko. New York: Holmes and Meier
Qin, D. (2004). Toward a critical feminist perspective culture and self. Feminism & Psychology. 14(2), 297-312.
Rich, A. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5(4), summer 1980, pp 631 - 690
Robert, M. & Ranka, P. (1958). New Approaches to Literature and Culture Ed. Harare: Weaver.
Sembeme O. (1962). God’s bits of wood. Trans. Francis price, Henman London
Showalter, E. (1971). Women’s Liberation and Literature. Harcourt BraceJovanovich: New York.
Showalter, E. (1977). “The female Tradition”. First chapter: A literature of their own. British Women Nevelists from bronte to lessing
Spender, D. (1980). Man made language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Spivak, G.C. (1976). Translation of an introduction to Derrida’s of Grammatology. Baltimore: John’s Hopkins.
Spivark G. (1976) Translation of Introduction to Derrida’s Grammatology. Beltimore John Hopkins
Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse, New York: Oxford University Press.
Thernton, W. (2015). Power, Privilege and Patriarchy Hanuton. Ontario.
Tong, R. (1889). Feminist Thought. A comprehensive introduction. London: West view press
Tumisang, T. (2010). Standing on the outside, woman’s search for identity in Yvonne Vera’s Why don’t you carve other animals.
Uwakweh, A. P. (1995). Debunking Patriarchy: The Liberation Quality of Voicing in Tisitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions”. Research in African Literatures 26:1: 75-84.
Wa Thiong’o, N. (1982).Homecoming. London. Heinemann,
Welter, B. (1966). The cult of True Womanhood; 1820-1860'
Wollstonecraft, M. (1975). 4 Vindications of the Rights of Women. W.W. Norton: New York
Vera, Y. (2001). Crossing into the Space-Time of. Memory: Borderline Identities Ranka Primorac. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, England.
Vera, Y. (1993). Nehanda. Harare. Baobab
Vera, Y. (1994). Without A Name. Harare: Baobab.
Vera, Y. (1998). Butterfly Burning. Harare: Baobab.
Vera, Y. (2002). The Stone Virgins. Harare: Baobab
Vera, Y. (1996). Under The Toungue. Harare: Baobab
Vera, Y 1995. The prison of colonial space: Narratives of Resistance; PhD thesis. Yoprk University Toronto.
Yvonne, V (2005) Re-writing Discourse of History and identity in Zimbabwe” Muponde and primorack, 203-216.