The Portrayal of Educated Women in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not and This Mournable Body

Abstract

The study sought the portrayal of educated women in the context of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not and This Mournable Body. The study set the following Objective: to examine how Dangarembga depicts the image of educated women in the aforementioned texts. The study employed a qualitative research design to collect and analyse non- numerical data. The researcher set off the process by critically reading the primary texts before analysing the portrayal of educated women in Dangarembga’s texts. Primary data was enhanced by relevant secondary data collected through the application of textual analysis from appropriate literary journals. The study deployed the rich tenets of womanism and psychoanalytic literary theories to investigate the portrayal of educated women in the aforementioned literary texts by Dangarembga.  The study found out that Dangarembga seems to portray educated women as clever, strong, ambitious, audacious, and hard workers. Dangarembga argues however, that since obstacles   are unavoidable evils, educated women tend to fail to retain their prosperous identity. Therefore, Dangarembga also portrays educated women as jobless, houseless, hopeless, traumatized, disappointed and disillusioned. Upon which the study concluded that educated women’s effort to progress and empowerment is highly inhibited by disaster. Educated women are still segregated on the basis of gender and colour. Consequently, education does not always guarantee women social and economic security. Therefore, the study recommends that educated women dream of a better life in society should be protected to avoid struggling, misery and poverty.  The research also  recommends that since this study focused on the portrayal of educated women in the context of Dangarembga’s The Book of Not and This Mournable Body, further study should concentrate on the roles of women in society in the context of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body.

Keywords: women education, portrayal of educated women, disillusionment, obstacles, disaster.