Gender and Epic in Syl Cheney-Coker’s The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar
Syl Cheney-Coker’s novel is fraught with a number of tensions. A plea for women’s rights in the context of colonial oppression, the novel, as a foundation epic, also tends to fall back on a more traditional conception of women as propagators of the family line. At the same time, the novel’s heavy re...
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| In: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ces, |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Language: | Anglais |
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Commonwealth Essays and Studies
2024
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| Online Access: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | Syl Cheney-Coker’s novel is fraught with a number of tensions. A plea for women’s rights in the context of colonial oppression, the novel, as a foundation epic, also tends to fall back on a more traditional conception of women as propagators of the family line. At the same time, the novel’s heavy reliance on magic properties, though justified in terms of the aesthetic codes specific to the epic genre, serves to underline the problematic character of the author’s attempt to reconcile a positive image of the new nations forged by former slaves on the African coast with the stark realities of contemporary West Africa. |
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