Tangible Voice-Throwing: Empowering Corporeal Discourses in African Women's Writing of Southern Africa

This study is the first book-length analysis of African women's writing of Southern Africa with a focus on writing the body. The thesis is that women are not voiceless, but hold a powerful, liberating potential: they «throw their voices» by implementing a strategic corporeal. Notably, this mode is not carried out in a way of emphasising corporeal difference by lack, but by attributing positive markers to the body. It reaches beyond a speaking which only represents women's thoughts and emotions physically a mode which might render the impression that they are incapable of expressing their conceptions and sentiments linguistically. It is an empowerment that reflects their skill to break up the bonds between language and body. This study is wide-ranging in its choice of authors and themes.

Autorentext

The Author: Bettina Weiss gained a Ph.D. in African literature from the Humboldt University of Berlin. She is editing a book on contemporary literature of Southern Africa dealing with topics such as socio-sexual experiences of black South African men, HIV/AIDS, prostitution, the re-negotiation and restoration of identities, and the past as mediator for the present. The author is working as a freelance journalist.

Klappentext

This study is the first book-length analysis of African women s writing of Southern Africa with a focus on writing the body. The thesis is that women are not voiceless, but hold a powerful, liberating potential: they «throw their voices» by implementing a strategic corporeal. Notably, this mode is not carried out in a way of emphasising corporeal difference by lack, but by attributing positive markers to the body. It reaches beyond a speaking which only represents women s thoughts and emotions physically a mode which might render the impression that they are incapable of expressing their conceptions and sentiments linguistically. It is an empowerment that reflects their skill to break up the bonds between language and body. This study is wide-ranging in its choice of authors and themes.

Inhalt
Contents: «Women have a mouth»: re-theorising voicelessness Methodological approach to Southern African women's writing Specification of study Women's authority, voicing, and writing in Southern Africa Kaleidoscopic views: body, space, and identity in The Middle Children and Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter The corporeal as a site of shame and redefinition in the novels of Zoë Wicomb Shades of utter(ing) silences (analysing works of Neshani Andreas, Bessie Head, and Yvonne Vera) «Exciting» speech in Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman Re-mapping and recycling the phallic in Toasted Penis and Cheese The bond(age) of love: A Question of Power Homoerotic desire in Southern African literatures There is no such thing as monsters: prostitute discourses in «Life» and Desperate.