Writing African Women: Gender, Popular Culture and Literature in West Africa

How does our understanding of African culture shift when we begin from the perspective of women? What can the African perspective offer theories of culture and of gender difference? This unique book brings together a wide variety of African academics to explore the links between literature, popular culture and theories of gender. The first part looks at the interaction of sexual politics and other polemics in the context of postcolonial Africa. The book then goes on to analyse African women’s writing uncovering the ways in which diffferent writers have approached, appropriated and subverted issues of female creativity, stereotypes of ‘African Woman’ and colonial history. The final part explores African popular culture including explorations of the gender dynamics of mask performance and oral story-telling.