Helen Yitah - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Helen Yitah

Meridians, 2018

This essay undertakes a gendered analysis of Mabel Dove-Danquah’s fiction within the context of n... more This essay undertakes a gendered analysis of Mabel Dove-Danquah’s fiction within the context of nationalist Ghanaian literature. Dove-Danquah and her contemporaries who wrote during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century portrayed almost all the ideas and ideology of modern African thought and many of the themes, modes, and techniques found in African literature today. Moreover, through their preoccupation with nationhood, race consciousness, and African cultural integrity, they announced Ghana’s intellectual independence decades before the end of colonial rule. However, Dove-Danquah stands out among this group as a writer whose fiction not only challenged colonial and racial legacies but also called into question male value systems that denied female subjectivity, and envisioned a “new woman” who could challenge them. The essay analyzes Dove-Danquah’s portraits of this “new woman” in her largely unpublished collection of short stories, “Sketches of Life,” to bring out her c...

“It is the stone thrown in jest that causes injury to the head.”—Kasem Proverb Albert Awedoba’s r... more “It is the stone thrown in jest that causes injury to the head.”—Kasem Proverb Albert Awedoba’s recent seminal work, An Introduction to Kasena Society and Culture Through Their Proverbs (2000a), and his article on

Motherhood has been established as a key distinguishing factor of African gender relations. What ... more Motherhood has been established as a key distinguishing factor of African gender relations. What remains unexplored is the circumstances under which African women find motherhood to be most fulfilling. In this paper I examine this subject by analyzing proverbs used by Kasena women from northern Ghana. The women take advantage of a socially sanctioned medium, the joking relationship that exists between a woman and her husband’s kin, to critique traditional constructions of motherhood via an innovative use of proverbs. From using clever and witty modifications of traditional proverbs, to creating brave new ones, Kasena women subvert, critique, and deconstruct the meaning of existing proverbs during joking in order to register their views on motherhood. Via their proverbs women indicate that motherhood is neither the only indicator of female identity nor the sole source of female fulfillment, as ‘traditional’ Kasem proverbs seem to suggest. They draw attention to other aspects of their...

Fabula, 2018

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz untersucht die Praxis gegenwärtigen Wiedererzählens von ghanaischen (... more Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz untersucht die Praxis gegenwärtigen Wiedererzählens von ghanaischen (Kasem) Volkserzählungen, die sich kritisch mit sozialen Rollen- und kulturellen Wertvorstellungen in den traditionellen Versionen auseinandersetzen. In den überlieferten Versionen werden übersinnliche Mächte angerufen, um Frauen zu bestrafen, die zu selbstständig handeln; damit wird weibliche Identität streng reguliert und begrenzt. In den neuen Versionen wenden die weiblichen Protagonistinnen das Prinzip des nantandia an, ein lokaler Kasem-Begriff, der Intelligenz, Initiative und Mut beinhaltet, und damit gleichzeitig den Einfluss der übersinnlichen Mächte beschneidet und die weibliche Individualität und Handlungsfähigkeit bestärkt.

Children's Literature, 2009

In this paper, I look at ways in which the content and form of Ghanaian folktales are being subve... more In this paper, I look at ways in which the content and form of Ghanaian folktales are being subverted in contemporary retellings in order to articulate the female protagonists ‟desire for power, agency, money, or the divine. I examine the folktales from the perspective of narrative theory, specifically gender theories about narrative agency and action. Narrative theorists with a focus on masculinity, notably Sigmund Freud, have tended to view narratives such as the Faust legend as “pre-eminently the representation of man‟s unquenchable striving” (Brooks 54), while feminist narrative theorists such as Julia Kristeva look to female characters in fiction, e.g., Kate Chopin‟s The Awakening (1899); Virginia Woolf‟s The Voyage Out (1915); Djuna Barnes‟s Nightwood (1937); andFay Weldon‟s The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983), for examples of female narrative desire.

Each manuscript should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 100 words. CITATIONS In the... more Each manuscript should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 100 words. CITATIONS In the text, citation should take the following forms: (1) New evidence can be found in Yeboah (1993); (2) Brown (1979) claims that his theory marks a new era in social research; and (3) She argued for a new policy that will "promote the dignity of both men and women" (Agbo 1994: 17). Citations should be done in the text, not in the endnotes.

Lee Smith’s tenth novel, Saving Grace , tells the story of Florida Grace Shepherd, the daughter o... more Lee Smith’s tenth novel, Saving Grace , tells the story of Florida Grace Shepherd, the daughter of a snake-handling preacher, whose memories of Scrabble Creek, her childhood home, inform her search for self definition. Gracie as she is fondly called arrives with her family at Scrabble Creek, a mountain community in North Carolina, from Atlanta, Georgia. When the Shepherds arrive at Scrabble Creek her father, Virgil Shepherd, sets about establishing his Jesus Name Church while Fannie, his wife, busies herself transforming an abandoned cabin into the family’s home. As they cheerfully embrace a life of poverty Fannie joyfully presides over the hillside with its “bright blooming flowers and new green trees” (88). Blooming daffodils and forsythia combine with Fannie’s cheerfulness to produce a convivial atmosphere that will hold for Gracie her most cherished memories. After Fannie commits suicide Gracie’s world is torn apart as Virgil, initially moving with her from one fundamentalist co...

In this interesting critical analysis of oral literature, in which she draws on field work, Helen... more In this interesting critical analysis of oral literature, in which she draws on field work, Helen Yitah discusses the place of proverbs in the social praxis of her native Ghanaian culture. She observes that the traditional tenor of proverbs is loaded with sexist implications designed to relegate women to the status of second class citizens. Adopting a feminist reading of the use of proverbs, Yitah argues that due to their subaltern position in society, women's use of proverbs is more subversive than that of their male counterparts. Yitah posits that Kasena women not only manipulate proverbs differently but also create what she calls “counter proverbs” that are used to draw attention to the female condition as well as challenge certain norms established by the dominant patriarchy. This is innovative work that revalorizes the place of African oral traditions in contemporary society.

Meridians, 2018

Fabula, 2018

Children's Literature, 2009