Sex as Synecdoche
Intimate Languages of Violence in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250165 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zoë Norridge (0000-0003-3698-223X, English and Foreign Languages University, corresponding author), Norridge Norridge |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 18 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/reseafrilite.43.2.18 |
| OpenAlex | W2056085748 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 11 |
In the 1990s, women's writing about war in Africa took a new turn as Yvonne Vera and Calixthe Beyala began to publish texts interweaving explicit sexual descriptions and graphic violence. With their examination of sexual relationships in the context of the Nigerian and Sierra Leonean civil wars, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love continue this trend. Why is it that female African writers are currently turning to sensuality as a means to explore conflict? This article argues that sex and violence are intricately interwoven and that the examination of sexual pleasure in these novels forms both a language and strategy with which to explore and contest violence against women. In doing so, it draws on theoretical insights about the sexual nature of outsider perspectives on conflict, the political choices involved in describing gender-based violence, and the crucial role of intimacy in representing war and wounding
CONTEST · Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Pleasure · Political science · Politics · Sexual violence · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Structural violence · Subversion · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · Psychology
X-raying the implications of conflict management, justice and human dignity of women under war situations in the African literary context
The Interplay of Fiction and International Law in Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love
Locating “Queer” in Contemporary Writing of Love and War in Nigeria
Female bodies, agency, real and symbolic violence during the coronavirus pandemic
Ways of knowing civil war
The Question of “Solidarity” in Postcolonial Trauma Fiction
The Language of Bodies
We should all be radical feminists
Modest Desires and Defiant Gestures”
Nunca Invisibles
Toward a Victim-Survivor Narrative
Rethinking female sexuality in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Affect, empathy, and engagement
Becoming black in Belgium
Queer Studies African Studies
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,25 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2021 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |