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Examine how gender and/or sexuality intersect with colonial structures of…
Examine how gender and/or sexuality intersect with colonial structures of power in two fictions from the module. In what ways does coloniality affect the representation of gender and/or sexuality?
EDUCATION
Tambu's education comes at the cost of her brother's death, women's education seen as secondary to that of men
"I was not sorry when my brother died" (Dangarembga, p.1)
Opening line of the novel, reminder that women's education is secondary, her education is only by the chance that her brother died
"How proud the poet, now long dead, would have been to hear his words ringing out of my mouth. I was then at the height of my two facedness" (Kincaid, p.14)
Colonialist education system, colonies forced into a British style of education that erases their own culture, Lucy's disconnect from the flowers as she has never seen them herself until adulthood,
Narrative style
Older narrator reflecting on moments from her past, slow unlearning of the teachings of colonialism
Both Lucy and Tambu see education as a way to elevate themselves and succeed, Lucy's night school vs Tambu's constant studying, frantic need to be educated as a form of escape from their home countries, both decide in the end that its a colonialist lie that they need to escape their home countries?
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HIERARCHY
Family structures
Lucy as a black au pair in a white household, hierarchy used to further oppress her
"I was only an unhappy young woman living in a maid's room, and I was not even the maid" (Kincaid, p.9)
Recall to colonialist times, setting of America, constant reminders of slave/master hierarchy
"It was a last resort for her- insisting that I be the servant and she the master" (Kincaid, p.75)
Gender hierarchy of Nigerian society in Nervous Conditions, abuse of women, women confined to domestic roles, setting of Nigeria vs Lucy's setting of America
Does Lucy's setting of America truly change this gender hierarchy? Relationship of Mariah and Lewis is heavily gendered, de-idealization of colonialist attitudes
"'Just hit. Thats what they hear" (Dangarembga, p.23)
INTERSECTIONALITY
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Tambu receives her scholarship to the boarding school at the end of the novel but is still discriminated due to her race
"the Africans live in here"(Dangarembga, p.194)
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