African Women Narrating Identity

This book examines the complexities of womens lives in Africa and the transnational spaces of Europe and North America through the literary works of key African women writers. Using a postcolonial analytical framework, the book highlights the commonalities of African womens identities and experiences across national, ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries in Africa and in western settings. It collates the multi-regional narratives of key African women writers who convey how womens lives are shaped by social, economic, and political factors at home and abroad. It also illustrates the intersection of ethnicity, class, and gender that flows through all the texts examined. Unlike existing works that explore African womens fiction, this book uncovers the transformation from postcolonial themes of nationhood to global modalities of post-independence writing through the lens of gender. The book engages with feminist expression through broad themes including religion, war and ethnic conflict, womens status in society, tradition and modernity and local and global tensions. A unique approach to literary criticism of Anglophone African womens writing, this book will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of African Literature, African Studies, Womens Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Cultural and Ethnic Studies and Migration and Diaspora Studies.