Weak or Wily? Girls' Voices in Tellings and Retellings of African Folktales for Children

Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: https://link.springer.com/

Y

15

Childrens Literature; Folk Culture; African Culture; Story Telling; Females; Literary Devices; Blacks; Authors; Innovation; Attitude Change; Ideology; Sex Role

10.1007/s10583-020-09421-w

0045-6713

Female characters in many African folktales are often perceived as voiceless and peripheral, playing the role of passive advisors and nurturers in contrast to the physically stronger and more active male characters. Some African scholars have disagreed with this perception, asserting that the female characters are stronger than their male counterparts. In this article I examine the voice and agency of female protagonists in selected retellings of folktales. The aim is to determine the extent to which retellings contest or perpetuate conventions and assumptions about girls and women, and whether the increasing globalisation of these folktales is enhancing the agency of female protagonists and challenging patriarchal paradigms. My analysis suggests that retellings by black female authors and storytellers are more innovative and demonstrate more resistance to patriarchal structures than those by white authors which may have been influenced by the idea of a traditional European folk or fairy tale. Folktales have the potential to effect change in dominant attitudes, and to encourage critical awareness of embedded ideological patterns. To this end, female African storytellers show an ability to retell stories and mould characters in ways that contest the traditional gender roles found in many African folktales.

As Provided

2021

EJ1306060