In Passing and Other Circumspections
In Passing and Other Circumspections
Nwapa, El Saadawi, Rifaat
Kenyan women writers such as Charity Waciuma (Daughter of Mumbi) and Muthoni Likimani (They Shall Be Chastised) addressed the issue of excision in their novels by dwelling on unexcised women, or irugu. In Kenya, unexcised girls are wedged between rites and rights, the ancestral ritual (and the “reactance” to its abolition) and the right not to be excised. In Daughter of Mumbi, Waciuma first mentions excision in passing. This chapter examines the use of the in-passing technique to address excision in the novels of three African women writers, one from Nigeria and two from Egypt: Flora Nwapa's Efuru (1966), Alifa Rifaat's Hawwa Taud bi-Adam (Eve Brings Back Adam, 1975), Man Yakun al-Rajul? (Who Will Be the Man?, 1981), and Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories (1983), and Nawal El Saadawi's The Hidden Face of Eve ([1980] 1995).
Keywords: women writers, excision, in-passing technique, novels, Nawal El Saadawi, Flora Nwapa, Alifa Rifaat, rites, rights, unexcised girls
Stanford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
