Dissertation
Confession of the Lioness
Under the Frangipani
Women
Transfiguration/metamorphosis
Outsider/Westerner
Traditional systems
lion people/invented lions
takatuka - pain with tree
sexual/physical aggression manifest as beast
madness
death/buried language as vehicle to illustrate oppression
excluded from tradition/spiritual knowledge
skeptical
saviour?
patriarchy
women possess the magic, men seem to have more of the 'rational' mindset
fertility and barrenness
the past
past dictates the present - sense of fate (esp. for women)
evocation of truth masked as madness
muteness/language
War
strong sense of Kulumani and its people being disillusioned and left behind by war
also interesting how women are implicated in this, but Hanifa mentions that 'their war' is more timeworn and neverending
storytelling
storytelling
biblical references - both for kulumani's creation and Archie's childhood stories
oral tradition
the journalist (as Mia?) what is his role in this? does he represent the new system of integrating magic and fact into language
sense of the timelessness and universality of this tale
quotes that preface each chapter - lots are proverbial
morphing with water
means of escape
"Mariamar, came from the river"
familial bond with animals - kin
lost people's humanity
myth/legend
tale of Ra and Sekmut
reoccuring theme of speaking a language that [x] can't understand
dreams
means of escape
"Makwala had always drawn a line between himself and the world that he called traditional"
resolution/reparation
Outsider/Westerner
dead man
the past
whiteness v. blackness
deracination
Mourao - left Portugal
oral storytelling
Navaia's life story
account of the murder
is there an objective truth in storytelling?
traditional systems
patriarchy - rape/violence against women
war - left behindness
forgotten stories - marginal peoples
nature
the sea
tree
truth - hero of the war
united by a common earth - kin
scepticism and doubts
inner monologue reveals insecurity
strong juxtaposition to the elderly
elderly - cut off, isolated, forgotten, disrespected, represent old forms of knowledge
city - modern, respected, globalised / corrupt, neocolonial
not racially, but in rules that govern life
notebook where he records their confessions
truth vs. lies
Marta - gateway for truth
detective genre
long for water because water has no past/memories
LMN transforms into water every night to recover from her trauma/past - no means to heal outside/in life
is he losing sight of reality?
belongs to another place, place he loves doesn't exist - liminal space
binaries
simultaneity
man-child (Navaia)
wife/daughter, orphan/widow (LMN)
fails to transition to understanding magic trads
mulatto
insight into izi
framing narrative
like Izi - he had a conflict of postcolonial subject
gives 'truth' to his story - not heroic
'the world that is coming is your world'
new age is for people like Izi
acceptance of fusion of knowledges
no questioning of truth behind dreams, love, life