Text and dis/placement in Bessie Head's Maru and Buchi Emecheta's The joys of motherhood

Abstract

This thesis examines the links (both metaphorical and literal) between the notions of dis/placement (and its relation to identity), and text/narrative in Bessie Head's Maru and Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood -- both of which are pieces of autobiographical fiction. In critiquing each novel, it addresses three key points: how much Head and Emecheta's writings have been influenced by their real life preoccupations and experiences; how writing either offered them a place to belong, or displaced them; and how these issues involving writing and dis/placement are echoed within the novels themselves.