Women's Progress in African Literature
From an early stage, the modern African novel has recognized the unjust challenges faced by African women. Even novels of the 1950's, such as Cyprian Ekwensi's People of the City (1954), bear witness to the difficulties that women face in transcending traditional norms as well as modern forms of objectification and exploitation. Even though these novels gesture to the need for better physical and societal realities for women, we may not find in the early novels a plan or vision of what exactly is needed for women to surmount various cultural hurdles and to fully actualize their potential in the modern realm. Certainly, later African novels, ranging from Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter (1979) to Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah (1987) to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah (2013), do explore avenues of progress for women's rights and actualization. May we ascertain, though, a common thread in the African novel that reveals what it will take to ensure enduring improvements in women’s lives? This panel will trace the progress toward women's well-being as reflected in the African novel and will ask whether any kind of unified vision for maximizing that progress is available in the literature. This panel invites proposals that concern a broad range of African literatures that were published in English or in English translation.
Thomas Jay Lynn