- Title
- Journeying home, exile and transnationalism in Noni Jabavu and Sisonke Msimang’s memoirs
- Creator
- Masola, Athambile
- ThesisAdvisor
- Spencer, Lynda Gichanda
- Subject
- Home in literature
- Subject
- Exile (Punishment) in literature
- Subject
- Women authors, Black -- South Africa -- History and criticism
- Subject
- Jabavu, Noni -- Criticism and interpretation
- Subject
- Msimang, Sisonke -- Criticism and interpretation
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Doctoral
- Type
- PhD
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/166529
- Identifier
- vital:41376
- Description
- This thesis examines the memoirs of two South Africa female writers: Noni Jabavu and Sisonke Msimang. In analysing their memoirs, this thesis sets out to contribute to the scholarship which centres the voices of Black women writers. It explores how both writers interrogate the concepts of home, exile and transnationalism. My focus is on the ways in which the writers theorise questions of belonging, and the extent to which their writing provides the opportunity to give voice to the complex nature of belonging. I read the narratives from these two writers alongside each other, as Noni Jabavu is Sisonke Msimang’s literary ancestor. By looking at their works alongside each other, this thesis becomes an intergenerational conversation between the past and the present. Using Black feminist thought and migratory subjectivity, this thesis examines the ways in which these writers connect the personal and the political. Noni and Sisonke navigate the private spaces of home in conversation with the political experience of exile and the nation. In the second chapter, I explore home as ekhaya, isizwe and an imaginary homeland. Ekhaya is the isiXhosa word denoting the family home, where there is a network of family rather than a nuclear family. Home is also isizwe: the isiXhosa word which evokes the nation state, which takes on layered meanings in the context of colonialism and apartheid. Home can also be an imaginary homeland, which is an imagined version of home after a long absence such as exile. In the third chapter, I examine three forms of exile: internal exile, estrangement and political exile. Finally, in chapter four, I analyse transnationalism: a border-crossing which raises questions of power, mobility and kinship. Looking at home, exile and transnationalism together allows for an exploration which challenges taken-for-granted ideas about place and identity. These memoirs illuminate the ways in which Black women constitute and reconstitute their identities according to the places which they access through travel.
- Format
- 192 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, School of Languages and Literatures
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Masola, Athambile
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | MASOLA-PHD-TR20-475.pdf | 638 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |