Place, Space and Patriarchal Femininities in Selected Contemporary Novels by African Women Writers Lize-Maree Steenkamp 3699107 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae in the Department of English Studies, University of the Western Cape. February 2019 Supervised by Associate Professor F. Fiona Moolla MLA 8th Edition (Please note that MLA 8th ed. varies significantly from earlier guidelines.) Recommended length: 80 000 – 100 000 words Actual length: 85 595 words http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp i Preliminary Pages Keywords African literature Nigerian literature Egyptian literature Sudanese literature homosocial place space public space private space feminism http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp ii Abstract Place, Space and Patriarchal Femininities in Selected Contemporary Novels by African Women Writers L Steenkamp, PhD Thesis, Department of English Studies, University of the Western Cape In much feminist literature, women’s spaces are analysed as constructive and supportive sites that may offer respite from patriarchy. However, women’s spaces are not inherently emancipatory. Through the socio-spatial dispersal of patriarchal power, places and spaces varying in scale – nations, cities, rural towns, private-public places and the home – can construct women who further the interests of men. Specifically, homosocial spaces, spaces where women interact with other women, can produce femininities that oppress other women by actively advancing patriarchal concerns. The selected primary texts consider spaces in regionally diverse but socially similar African contexts: Sefi Atta’s Swallow (2011) and Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2010) are set in Nigeria, Miral al- Tahawy’s The Tent (1998) is set in Egypt, while Leila Aboulela’s Lyrics Alley (2010) is set in both Egypt and Sudan. I use the selected novels as cartographies for socio-geographical inquiry to establish how space and place construct patriarchal women. Literary spaces and places are studied from largest to smallest scale: The analysis of national spaces in the novels is followed by a study of urban and rural spaces, followed by private-public places, domestic place and, finally, at a micro-scale, the body-as-place. The analyses of these literary spaces will reveal the mechanisms by which patriarchal women are spatially produced, and may use space to oppress other women. 22 October 2018 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp iii Declaration I declare that Place, Space and Patriarchal Femininities in Selected Contemporary Novels by African Women Writers is my own work, that it has not been submitted for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete references. Full name: Lize-Maree Steenkamp Date: 22 October 2018 Signed: http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp iv http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp v Table of Contents Preliminary Pages ........................................................................................................... i Keywords ................................................................................................................................ i Abstract ................................................................................................................................. ii Declaration ........................................................................................................................... iii Introduction: Locating the Female Patriarch ................................................................. 1 The Emergence of Space through Time ................................................................................. 2 Mapping Space and Feminism ............................................................................................... 6 Postcolonial Space ................................................................................................................. 7 Space and Place ................................................................................................................... 12 Geo-textual Contexts ........................................................................................................... 22 Homosocial Places and the Construction of the Female Patriarch ..................................... 34 Plotting Cultural Difference ................................................................................................. 47 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 1: National Femininities: Egypt, Nigeria and Sudan Writ Small ..................... 58 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 58 Marking Boundaries: Studying the Postcolonial Nation in Literature ................................. 61 Geo-Textual Contexts: Lyrics Alley and Swallow ................................................................. 70 Women’s Stories and the Postcolonial Nation-State .......................................................... 77 Extroverted Vistas: The Call of the Global North in Swallow and Lyrics Alley ..................... 81 National Spaces: Patriarchal Women in State Infrastructure in Swallow ........................... 95 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp vi The Introverted Gaze: Home Affairs .................................................................................... 99 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 109 Chapter 2: Reading Patriarchal Femininities in City and Rural Spaces ...................... 111 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 111 Reading African Cities and Rural Spaces............................................................................ 112 Gender in Literary Representations of African Urban and Rural Spaces .......................... 119 The Road ............................................................................................................................ 122 Literary Places: African Cities and Rural Areas .................................................................. 126 Entropic Cityscapes and Female Characters ...................................................................... 134 Crossing Big Space: Mobility and Autonomy ..................................................................... 139 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 150 Chapter 3: Private-Public Places and the Construction of Femininities ..................... 152 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 152 Reading Semiperipheral Places ......................................................................................... 156 Intersections of Private and Public Places ......................................................................... 158 The Hospital ....................................................................................................................... 164 Working in the Home and the Compound ........................................................................ 174 Imagined Space .................................................................................................................. 180 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 186 Chapter 4: Body and Brick: Patriarchs by Proxy in Domestic Places .......................... 188 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 188 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp vii Gender in Representations of African Domestic Place ..................................................... 193 Situating the Body ............................................................................................................. 201 The Body Written at Risk ................................................................................................... 208 Maintaining Boundaries in Unhomely Literary Homes ..................................................... 223 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 239 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 242 Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 255 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ Steenkamp 1 Introduction: Locating the Female Patriarch It would all soon be over, right there under the deep water that ran below Carter Bridge. Then she would be able to seek out and meet her chi, her personal god, and she would ask her why she had punished her so. She knew her chi was a woman, not just because to her way of thinking only a woman would be so thorough in punishing another. – Nnu Ego, The Joys of Motherhood (Emecheta 9) The image of the women’s space as a haven of support, sisterhood and resistance to patriarchy, makes a frequent appearance in works of fiction as well as feminist criticism. Although this conception