The madness of the Black man on his own: an analysis of the silences of history, in search of herstory
type: CreativeWork
description: The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the autobiographical works of three Black South African women -- Mamphela Ramphele, Bessie Head, and Ellen Kuzwayo -- to see if and how they were impacted by the masculine discourse of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), which was articulated in terms of "the Black man" and his struggle. One of the first points I make and use as a premise throughout the thesis is that the term "man" is neither inclusive nor universal; it, instead, refers specifically to men and cannot refer to both men and women. What could have motivated the use of this masculinist language, particularly in light of the fact that the Nguni and Sotho languages of South Africa do not have a gender differentiation system for the third person pronoun? This question led me to an examination of the English language since English was the language chosen by the activists to conduct the business of the Movement. But, there was yet another factor to consider besides the language. The Black Consciousness Movement took place through the 1960s and into the late 1970s, during the latter part of an era of many other Black nationalist struggles around the world (Negritude, the U.S. Black Power Movements, liberation struggles of many of the other African countries). So, I look specifically at men's writings ' from Negritude and the Black Power Movements and compare them to a sample of writings from male writers in the Black Consciousness Movement, showing that all of these writers articulate employ this masculinist language. The significance of the timing of Black Consciousness (BC) is that it emerged into an international context with a readymade nationalist discourse of the liberation of Black people and the struggle of Black men. That discourse, however, might not have emerged if the usage of the masculine as universal were not already an acceptable practice the English language. Thus, the first chapter is an examination of the masculinity of the English langu…
abstract: The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the autobiographical works of three Black South African women -- Mamphela Ramphele, Bessie Head, and Ellen Kuzwayo -- to see if and how they were impacted by the masculine discourse of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), which was articulated in terms of "the Black man" and his struggle. One of the first points I make and use as a premise throughout the thesis is that the term "man" is neither inclusive nor universal; it, instead, refers specifically to men and cannot refer to both men and women. What could have motivated the use of this masculinist language, particularly in light of the fact that the Nguni and Sotho languages of South Africa do not have a gender differentiation system for the third person pronoun? This question led me to an examination of the English language since English was the language chosen by the activists to conduct the business of the Movement. But, there was yet another factor to consider besides the language. The Black Consciousness Movement took place through the 1960s and into the late 1970s, during the latter part of an era of many other Black nationalist struggles around the world (Negritude, the U.S. Black Power Movements, liberation struggles of many of the other African countries). So, I look specifically at men's writings ' from Negritude and the Black Power Movements and compare them to a sample of writings from male writers in the Black Consciousness Movement, showing that all of these writers articulate employ this masculinist language. The significance of the timing of Black Consciousness (BC) is that it emerged into an international context with a readymade nationalist discourse of the liberation of Black people and the struggle of Black men. That discourse, however, might not have emerged if the usage of the masculine as universal were not already an acceptable practice the English language. Thus, the first chapter is an examination of the masculinity of the English langu…
author: Yates, Kimberley Ann
keywords: Literary Studies
date published: 1997
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:51Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of English Language and Literature

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38488