An exploration of the portrayal of the Girl-Child in Erna Muller's it all goes wrong and when you dance with the crocodile

This thesis provides a critical analysis of the portrayal of the girl-child by Erna Muller in It all goes wrong and When you dance with the crocodile. The two novels were selected using purposive sampling as they primarily characterise girl-children as protagonists. The researcher employed the African feminist literary theory in this study. The African feminist literary theory was used to study how the girl-child is portrayed in the patriarchal world. The study used a qualitative research design to interpret the depiction of the girl-child in the two novels. Content analysis was used to analyse the two novels for depictions of the girl-child. The study revealed that in both novels the girl-characters make independent decisions and act on them, while other characters such as adults and boys play secondary roles. The study revealed that as portrayed by Muller, the girl-child is innocent, open minded, caring, adventurous, assertive, compassionate and brave. Among the themes that came up in the study are innocence versus naivety, child trafficking, slavery and sexual abuse. In the two novels the girl-child is portrayed as a heroine as the actions that are carried out by the protagonists are life-saving. All in all, it can be concluded that Muller used the two novels to empower the girl-child.

Author dc:creator

• Chunga, Timothy M.

• Portrayal
• Erna Muller's

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/1650

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.unam.edu.na:11070/1650