20th Annual Student Research Conference
Language & Literature
Casualties of Homemaking in Society: An Examination of Amina in The Cairo Trilogy and Mainini in Nervous Conditions
Josh D. Huber
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
The Cairo Trilogy (1956), by Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, and Nervous Conditions (1988), by Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga, depict vastly different environments within British Colonial Africa. However, both works portray women-Amina in the Trilogy and Mainini in Nervous Conditions- as victims of a patriarchal society in flux because of crumbling colonial administration. This paper will compare these characters' roles as homemakers and analyze how their unhappiness with the social structure and the uncertainty of their surroundings alienate them from their families and undermine the control they have over their households. Finally I will discuss how historical circumstances make each woman a casualty of a society frenzied by social and political transformations.
Keywords: Tsisti Dangarembga, Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Nervous Conditions
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 42-3
Location: OP 2115
Time: 1:45 pm