Gendered Spaces and Ruptured Identities

A significant contribution to existing body of scholarship on African literature, Gendered Spaces and Ruptured Identities: Representation of Women in African Literature contains diverse essays on the writings of African women writers including prominent ones such as Buchi Emecheta, El-Sadaawi, Flora Nwapa, Bessie Head, Zoe Wicomb, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Noemia de Sousa, Otymeyin Agbajoh-Laoye, Ifi Amadiume, Abena P. A. Busia, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Lola Shoneyin, Yaa Gyasi along with Beryl Subia Awuor. Besides renegotiating afresh gendered spaces in African women's writings, this book also seeks to re-present deeply wounded African female identity which, despite all odds, has managed to resist through gritty survivance. This book also questions male-centric African literary tradition, which has either volitionally ignored or marginalized female writers who have been articulating their first-hand experience of oppressive, patriarchal African socio-cultural setup to challenge appallingly prejudiced and biased African society. The customs of bride price, polygamy, female genital mutilation and issues concerning glorification of marriage, motherhood, chastity, virginity and identity have been incisively taken up and critiqued by these women through their literary works. About the Editors Hem Raj Bansal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala. He has co-edited two books namely Mapping Diaspora Identities: India and Beyond (Anamika 2017) and Homogeneity in Heterogeneity: Memory, Culture, and Resistance in Aboriginal Literatures from around the World (Authors Press 2018). Roshan Lal Sharma is a Professor of English at Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala.