Our Next Talk: ‘African Women in Literature and Film: Strength and Resilience’

DARN presents
DARN Presents

‘African Women in Literature and Film:Strength and Resilience’


Nicole Devarenne
In honour of United Nations Day on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Nicole Devarenne will talk about the strength and resilience of women as it has been represented by African writers and filmmakers. The talk will begin with Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi (1930), one of the first novels by a black South African, and go on to consider how writers such as Bessie Head, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have placed women’s experience in the foreground of their stories of survival, renewal and resistance. The talk will also touch on films such as Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé and Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday.

Dr. Nicole Devarenne teaches modules on ‘The African Novel’ and ‘South African Literature and Film’ in the School of Humanities at the University of Dundee. She has published articles in Research in African Literatures, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Journal of Southern African Studies, and The London Review of Books. She is a member of the Scottish Centre for Global History at the University of Dundee.
Before our Guest Speaker takes us through the literary aesthetics on women representation in the literature and film, members of the audience will have an opportunity to read their literary pieces concerning the central theme. Such pieces need not be their own original works. However, people who read will be expected writers’ names and the sources. We invite you to bring any piece of writing such as poems, short stories, books and literary materials to the venue to read to our enthusiastic audience. Writings on women generally and sub-themes such as feminism, love, motherhood, strength, resilience, sacrifice, relationship, culture, girl child education, dignity, heroines, empowerment, leadership among others are all welcome.
We invite you to this event as Dundee Africa Rsearch Network (DARN) joins the rest of the world to mark United Nations Day on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Literature is the mirror of life. Come, let’s see through this fascinating mirror with Dr. Devarenne.