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Programa De Doctorado: Lenguas Y Culturas

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Programa De Doctorado: Lenguas Y Culturas PROGRAMA DE DOCTORADO: LENGUAS Y CULTURAS TESIS DOCTORAL MEMORIA, RESISTENCIA Y RESILIENCIA EN LA LITERATURA POSTCOLONIAL AFRICANA ESCRITA POR MUJERES. MEMORY, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE Autora: Mª Dolores Raigón Hidalgo Directora: Prof. Dra. Antonia Navarro Tejero 27 de Febrero 2020 TITULO: MEMORY, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN WOMEN'S LITERATURE AUTOR: María Dolores Raigón Hidalgo © Edita: UCOPress. 2020 Campus de Rabanales Ctra. Nacional IV, Km. 396 A 14071 Córdoba https://www.uco.es/ucopress/index.php/es/ [email protected] TÍTULO DE LA TESIS: Memoria, resistencia y resiliencia en la literatura postcolonial africana escrita por mujeres DOCTORANDA: MARÍA DOLORES RAIGÓN HIDALGO INFORME RAZONADO DE LA DIRECTORA DE LA TESIS La Tesis Doctoral de Dña. María Dolores Raigón se desarrolla dentro del propósito de poner en valor a la escritora ghanesa Ayesha Harrunah Attah, haciendo un estudio detallado de su obra completa y situándola en la trayectoria literaria del país. El análisis crítico realizado en esta Tesis Doctoral proporciona un enfoque novedoso para responder a las cuestiones planteadas en esta investigación. El objetivo principal de esta Tesis Doctoral es revisar la literatura escrita en lengua inglesa, aportando la contribución de una mujer africana, que no reside en la diáspora. A la presente aproximación crítica le acompaña un enfoque metodológico actual basado en los conceptos más novedosos del feminismo postcolonial y un extenso recorrido por el contexto político-social entorno al feminismo africano. Entre los resultados obtenidos, destaca la originalidad de la doctoranda al concluir que la autora propone un paso más allá de la violencia y el trauma. Pasamos de la resiliencia de la subalternidad (donde se mantienen las posiciones de subalternidad) a la resiliencia de la vulnerabilidad (donde hay una supervivencia del colectivo vulnerable con una transformación del mismo). Las conclusiones significativas obtenidas en esta Tesis Doctoral pueden abrir el camino para tender puentes entre la teoría y la práctica, al proporcionar información de relevancia sobre la joven escritora y la situación de las mujeres en Ghana, así como para ayudar en la toma de decisiones políticas y estratégicas relativas al estudio de la migración por parte de las autoridades y agentes implicados. Por todo ello, se autoriza la presentación de la Tesis Doctoral. Córdoba, 24 de febrero de 2020 Fdo.: Antonia Navarro Tejero AGRADECIMIENTOS/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Antonia Navarro Tejero, my supervisor. You kindly and generously accepted to guide me in the path that today culminates. Thank you for your encouragement, your academic rigor, your trust and your respect. Many thanks also to Prof. Dr. Rafael Bonilla Cerezo. An always helping hand at the IDEP. Thank you for your support any time. Thank you to Ayesha Harruna Attah who kindly accepted an interview via email when she was at her busiest promoting The Hundred Wells. My warmest thanks to Álvaro and Gonzalo, my sons. Thank you for your genuine support and your messages of love on my computer. I hope that you have learnt as I have, how good it feels when you give your best. Last but not least, my deepest thanks to Blas, my husband, my partner and always firm support. Thank you for your patience all these hard years; thanks for giving up to so much. Thank you for your sense of humour; you always throw light when it is dark. Thank you for your invaluable logistic help. Thank you for being so caring, especially these last weeks. I love you three. Thank you to all those friends who have supported me since I started my doctoral course back in 1997. To the woman who can “Como los recuerdos dolían, no recordaban. Como las lágrimas herían, no lloraban. Como los sentimientos debilitaban, no sentían.” Las tres bodas de Manolita. Almudena Grandes. RESUMEN/ABSTRACT El planteamiento de partida que hace pertinente esta investigación es una reformulación de las perspectivas con las que la literatura africana escrita por mujeres se ha interpretado desde la crítica feminista occidental. Como hipótesis de partida planteamos la necesidad de hacer, desde esta perspectiva, un balance del sentido de la obra de la escritora ghanesa Ayesha Harrunah Attah, desde el enfoque del feminismo postcolonial. Dentro del marco del feminismo postcolonial son varios los estudios que hacen referencia a la repercusión de la memoria en la literatura, así como de las estrategias empleadas por distintas autoras para dar voz a los colectivos olvidados por el discurso hegemónico occidental. Para Barbara Harlow en Resistance Literature las narraciones de resistencia ahondan en el análisis de las relaciones que sustentan el sistema de dominación y explotación proporcionando un análisis histórico detallado de las circunstancias de dominación y represión económicas, políticas y culturales, mientras analizan el impacto del pasado en el presente y lo utilizan para encontrar nuevas formas de resistir en el presente y en el futuro. Sarah Bracke en “Bouncing Back. Vulnerability and Resistance in Times of Resilience” analiza el poder que la resiliencia ejerce en los sujetos y las distintas formas en las que tales sujetos existen y se mantienen. Para ello, consideramos relevante el impacto de la memoria en la obra de Attah, Harmattan Rain (2009), Saturday´s Shadows (2015) y The Hundred Wells of Salaga (2018), así como la implicación conceptual de agencia y resistencia y el poder que la resiliencia ejerce en los sujetos. Hemos constatado el impacto de la memoria en la literatura postcolonial africana, tanto revisando la implicación conceptual de agencia y resistencia, como analizando el poder que la resiliencia ejerce en los sujetos. En el marco del feminismo postcolonial, hemos abordado la importancia de mecanismos de resistencia y resiliencia en la literatura africana escrita por mujeres en lengua inglesa. Hemos demostrado la concepción de la vulnerabilidad como condición capacitadora y, a través del análisis comparativo de nuestro corpus, concluimos que la narración, como manifestación artística, se confirma como respuesta sanadora al trauma y la marginalización. Palabras clave: Feminismos africanos, vulnerabilidad, Ayesha Harruna Attah, violencia, resiliencia, memoria. The initial approach which makes this research relevant is a reformulation of the perspectives which Western Feminist criticism has interpreted African women´s literature. The initial hypothesis proposes the necessity of a balance of the Ghanaian writer Ayesha Harruna Attah´s novels from a postcolonial feminism focus. There are many studies within postcolonial feminist theory which mention the repercussions of memory in literature, as well as those strategies employed by different authors to give voice to those collectives forgotten by Western hegemonic discourse. Barbara Harlow contends in Resistance Literature that narrations of resistance go deeply into the analysis of the relations which support the system of domination and exploitation giving a detailed historical analysis of those circumstances of economic, political and cultural domination and repression while they analyze the impact of the past in the present and they use it to find new ways to resist in both the present and the future. Sarah Bracke, in “Bouncing Back. Vulnerability and Resistance in Times of Resilience”, analyzes the power exerted by resilience on subjects besides the different ways in which those subjects exist and do not give way. For that reason, the impact of memory in Attah´s work is relevant, as well as the conceptual implication of agency and resistance together with the power exerted by resilience on those subjects. The impact of memory in postcolonial literature in Africa has been proved by means of the revision of the conceptual implication of agency and resistance as analyzing the power that resilience exerts on the subjects. Within the frame of postcolonial feminism, it has been undertaken the importance of mechanisms of resistance and resilience in African women´s literature in English. It has also been shown that vulnerability is an enabling condition. Furthermore, by means of the comparative analysis of the chosen corpus, it can be concluded that storytelling, as an artistic manifestation, proves as healing response to trauma and marginalization. Keywords: African feminisms, vulnerability, Ayesha Harruna Attah, violence, resilience, memory. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION………………………….………………………………………...…..1 PART I CHAPTER 1. STATE OF THE ART……………………………………………………8 1.1.THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK FROM AFRICA………………….8 1.2. POST-COLONIAL FEMINISM. FROM THE THIRD WAVE OF NORTH AMERICAN FEMINISM TO AFRO-AMERICAN FEMINISMS……………………………………………………………......26 1.2.1 AFRICAN FEMINISMS……………………………………..32 1.2.2. WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA…………………..52 1.3. GHANA AND ITS CULTURAL PRODUCTION…………………...56 1.3.1. CONTEXTUALIZING GHANA……………………………56 1.3.1.1. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL FRAMEWORK: GHANA BEFORE AND AFTER COLONIZATION….....61 1.3.1.2. SOCIAL FRAMEWORK IN RELATION TO GENDER AND SEXUALITY………………………………..…………72 1.3.2. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE IN GHANA……………...90 1.3.2.1. PIONEER WRITERS IN VERNACULAR LANGUAGES…………………………………………..…………...90 1.3.2.2.CONTEMPORARY GHANAIAN WRITERS IN ENGLISH…………………………………………………………....96 1.3.2.3. WOMEN WRITERS IN GHANA……....…………97 1.3.2.3.1. FORERUNNERS………………………,,,.97 1.3.2.3.2. POST- INDEPENDENCE: EFUA SUTHERLAND, AMA ATA AIDOO AND AMA DARKO…………97 1.3.2.3.3. CONTEMPORARY GHANAIAN WOMEN WRITERS…………………………………………...99
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