The Politics Of Mothering: Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African Literature

A feminist study that interrogates feminist theorizing,The Politics of (M)Otheringcalls into question the validity of the traditional/modern prototype in analysis of African Literature. This volume examines the many faces of "Mother" in African works--motherland, mother tongue, motherwit, motherhood, mothering--that expose the paradoxical location of (m)other as both a central and peripheral "other". On many levels, the essays in this volume problematize the issue of "victim" as it is articulated by a feminist voice. Though this volume stands as a feminist analysis of African Literature, it engages in feminist theory itself by demonstrating how issues in feminism such as voice, agency, victimhood, subjectivity, choice, sisterhood and motherhood are recast in different ways.