Eastern African women writers’ ‘national epics’: A new force in creative fiction?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v58i1.8262

Keywords:

‘national epics’, Eastern African women writers, localised histories, authority

Abstract

In this article, I bring five recent, substantial novels by Eastern African women writers together for the first time in a study regarding the texts as modern ‘national epics’, analysing some of their shared characteristics in foregrounding local participation in the making of East African ethno-national histories. I trace the novelists’ implicit, open-eyed moral evaluation of their leaders and peoples, neither sentimentalising nor deriding the often terrible struggles of their peoples against both inside and outside powers that seek to keep them in subjugation. The texts eschew traditional heroic portrayal of single, male leaders in national epics and allow us to grasp diverse, communal contributions to the growth of nationhood, while giving larger, often central roles to women. The texts earn the epithet ‘epic’ by authoritatively demonstrating that their embodied, localised histories matter, testifying to the wide human spectrum of the peoples they portray; as novelistic acts they are impressive and moving bids for recognition. As post-colonial endeavours, the texts effectively decentre colonial interventions. While the chosen novels are shown to be relatable, their individual power of portrayal and aesthetic achievements are scrupulously differentiated.

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Author Biography

Annie Gagiano, Stellenbosch University, Stellenboch, South Africa

Annie Gagiano is a Professor Emerita in the Department of English, Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

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Published

2021-05-03

How to Cite

Gagiano, A. (2021). Eastern African women writers’ ‘national epics’: A new force in creative fiction?. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 58(1), 35–45. https://doi.org/10.17159/tl.v58i1.8262

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Research articles