Gender and conflict in African women's writing : a comparative study of feminist themes in a selection of narratives in English and French by women writers from sub-Saharan Africa

[Truncated] This is a study of both anglophone and francophone African women's writing. It focuses on numerous novels, many of which are relatively unknown and most of which were published in the last twenty years, half of these in the last ten. In considering these works I use a conceptual framework built around issues of gender and conflict. A close textual reading of the novels covers four main thematic areas contained within four chapters. Chapter 1 concerns texts which represent women in conflict with their careers, their marriage and their status as mothers. Chapter 2 addresses the representation of the mother/daughter relationship, particularly in relation to issues of education and the absent mother. Chapter 3 details the literary exposition of excision and explores the implication of the mother's role in this practice. Finally, in Chapter 4 the father/daughter relationship is discussed against a background of patriarchy and incest.