Ethics and Human Rights in Anglophone African Women’s Literature

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: The Ethical Turn in African Literature

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 1-42

3. Feminism as Fairness

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 43-68

4. Diary of Intense Pain: The Postcolonial Trap and Women’s Rights

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 69-94

5. The Body in Pain and the Politics of Culture

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 95-120

6. Abstractions as Disablers of Women’s Rights

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 121-143

7. The Enslaved Body as a Symbol of Universal Human Rights Abuse

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 145-163

8. Human Rights as Liberatory Social Thought

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 165-185

9. The Obligation to Bear Testimony to Human Rights Abuses

   • Chielozona Eze

   Pages 187-208

10. Back Matter

    Pages 209-230

    PDF

This book proposes feminist empathy as a model of interpretation in the works of contemporary Anglophone African women writers. The African woman’s body is often portrayed as having been disabled by the patriarchal and sexist structures of society. Returning to their bodies as a point of reference, rather than the postcolonial ideology of empire, contemporary
African women writers demand fairness and equality. By showing how this literature deploys imaginative shifts in perspective with women experiencing unfairness, injustice, or oppression because of their gender, Chielozona Eze argues that by considering feminist empathy, discussions open up about how this literature directly addresses the systems that put them in disadvantaged positions. This book, therefore, engages a new ethical and human rights awareness in African literary and cultural discourses, highlighting the openness to reality that is compatible with African multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and increasingly cosmopolitan communities.

• gender equality
• contemporary Anglophone African women writers
• humanist ideals
• female body
• feminism

“A remarkable work, both for its compassion and critical insights, Chielozona Eze’s Ethics and Human Rights in Anglophone African Women’s Literature: Feminist Empathy ‘liberates’ empathy from ideology and offers a focused way of reading literature within and across borders that also transcends limiting contexts.” (Dr. Maik Nwosu, University of Denver, USA)

“In a thus far unsurpassed “sharing of affect,” Professor Eze artfully deploys what he calls “feminist empathy” for third-generation Anglophone African women writers.  In the wake of their foremothers’ rejection of the double yoke of colonialism and patriarchy, this millennial generation of women writers reclaims “a body of their own” and its unaccountable pain.   Eze’s bold yet gentle gesturing towards these new female subjectivities makes him a male feminist, definitely a rare commodity on the Nigerian scene. His book is a high risk/high gain venture opening wide the portal of “human flourishing” for other African empathizers in the post-nation-state.” (Chantal Zabus, author of “Between Rites and Rights: Excision in Women's Experiential Texts and Human Contexts”, Université Paris 13 – Sorbonne Paris Cité)

“Eze deftly demonstrates how contemporary African writing by women deploys feminist empathy to link ethics and human rights in a fresh interpretation of ubuntu -- the African philosophy of individual and community interdependence. With nuance and a rare attention to not only fiction but also poetry, essays and new media, Eze shows how recent works extending longstanding African feminist theories into new territory, proving Adichie and her sister-authors right: we should all be feminists.“ (Tsitsi Jaji, author of “Africa in Stereo: Modernism, Music and Pan-African Solidarity”)

• Northeastern Illinois University , Chicago, USA

  Chielozona Eze

Chielozona Eze is Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Northeastern Illinois University, USA. He has held fellowships including the UCLA Global Fellowship and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS). 

Policies and ethics