Beside the West: Postcolonial Women Writers, the Nation, and the Globalised World

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Periodical article

Title:	Beside the West: Postcolonial Women Writers, the Nation, and the Globalised World
Author:	Boehmer, Elleke
Year:	2004
Periodical:	African Identities
Volume:	2
Issue:	2
Period:	November
Pages:	173-188
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	women writers novels Women's Issues Literature, Mass Media and the Press
About person:	Yvonne Vera (1965-2005)
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/1472584042000310883
Abstract:	The essay examines two recent postcolonial women writers' delicate negotiations of definitions of the body, home and national identity, in relation to the transnational forces of war and the market which impinge on national integrity and loyalty. Via readings of work by the Zimbabwean Yvonne Vera and the Indian writer Arundhati Roy, the essay suggests that, contrary to current definitions of the postcolonial novel, women writers might in fact be seeking to reclaim the conflicted space of the nation as a refuge in a globalized world. Particular attention is given to the emblematization of the nation as a women's space, and as a woman. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]