An amazon image versus patriarchal constructs : representations of women in selected works of Matlwa and Mda

Abstract

The “images of women” school of feminist critics is particularly concerned with how women are represented in fictional texts. Feminists are generally not satisfied with stereotyping of women as done in traditional fictional texts as a way of sustaining patriarchy. In their fight for women emancipation, feminists have taken up an “Amazon image” to construct female characters that resemble the ancient Amazons. The Amazonian characters are constructed for women empowerment as a means of achieving the feminist goal of gender equality. The present study locates itself within the “images of women” school to determine from which perspective female characters are portrayed in selected texts. It employs a corpus of feminist theories that include Amazon feminism, to critically analyse purposively sampled texts by two South African writers, Kopano Matlwa and Zakes Mda. The aim of the study is to determine if female characters in selected texts are constructed from an Amazonian perspective or from a patriarchal view which dominates androcentric texts. The study thus juxtaposes stereotypically constructed female characters with female characters constructed from an Amazonian perspective. Amazonian characters are constructed as subjects, and are empowered while patriarchal constructs are objectified, and are negatively portrayed. A major finding is that Matlwa has constructed female characters from an Amazonian perspective and that Mda has constructed female characters from a patriarchal view. The conclusion is that the Amazonian character is an alternative representation of women than the traditional patriarchal view of women.