Date of Completion

4-26-2019

Embargo Period

4-23-2029

Keywords

African, Women, Senegal, Literature

Major Advisor

Elaine Dalmolin

Associate Advisor

Anne Berthelot

Associate Advisor

Dr. Roger Celestin

Field of Study

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Campus Access

Abstract

This dissertation will examine how Senegalese women are represented as literary and political voices to be heard and contended with in a series of Senegalese novels written by women. This selection of novels by four French-Senegalese writers are: Nafissatou Niang Diallo (From Tilene to Plateau: A Childhood in Dakar (1975), De Tilene au Plateau: une Enfance Dakaroise), Ken Bugul (Riwan or the Sandy Path (1999), Riwan ou le Chemin de Sable), Manama Ba (So Long a Letter (1979), Une Si Longue Lettre), and Aminata Sow Fall (The Call of Arenas (1982), L'appel des Arenes). Through a close critical reading of these texts, the thesis aims to delineate the different strategies and literary styles that enabled these women authors, each in their own way, to lend a voice to Senegalese women who have not typically had an active presence in modern and contemporary literature. In the process, we will inevitably encounter the related issues of power and gender that go well beyond the limits of the corpus and of Senegal.

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Available for download on Monday, April 23, 2029

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