Gabon's first female novelist, Angele Rawiri probed deeper into
the issues that writers a generation before her--Mariama Ba and
Aminata Sow Fall--had begun to address. Translated by Sara
Hanaburgh, this third novel of the three Rawiri published is
considered the richest of her fictional prose. It offers a gripping
account of a modern woman, Emilienne, who questions traditional
values and seeks emancipation from them.
Emilienne's active search for feminism on her own terms is
tangled up with cultural expectations and taboos of motherhood,
marriage, polygamy, divorce, and passion. She completes her
university studies in Paris; marries a man from another ethnic
group; becomes a leader in women's liberation; enjoys professional
success, even earning more than her husband; and eventually takes a
female lover. Yet still she remains unsatisfied. Those closest to
her, and even she herself, constantly question her role as woman,
wife, mother, and lover. The tragic death of her only child--her
daughter Rekia--accentuates Emilienne's anguish, all the more so
because of her subsequent barrenness and the pressure that she
concede to her husband's taking a second wife.
In her forceful portrayal of one woman's life in Central Africa
in the late 1980s, Rawiri prompts us not only to reconsider our
notions of African feminism and the canon of francophone African
women's writing but also to expand our awareness of the issues
women face across the world today in the workforce, in the bedroom,
and among family and peers.
General
Imprint: |
University of Virginia Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature translated from the French |
Release date: |
July 2014 |
First published: |
July 2014 |
Authors: |
Angele Rawiri
|
Translators: |
Sara Hanaburgh
|
Afterword by: |
Cheryl Toman
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
224 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8139-3602-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-8139-3602-0 |
Barcode: |
9780813936024 |
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