Singing in Prison - Women Writers and the Discourse of Resistance

Abstract

In this article I interrogate the position of the white feminist academic writing about black women, and examine various strategies which could be employed to avoid creating a fictional monolith of "third-world" women. In analysing the writing of resistance, epitomized by Caesarina Kona Makhoere's No child's play, attention is paid to the gaps in the discourse which reveal how Makhoere's political ideology overrules considerations of gender. Makhoere's text is used to explore the "matrix of domination" whereby the postco/onia/ feminist critic can avoid using terms of binary opposition and find new ways of perceiving the problems of submission and aggression.

Opsomming
In hierdie artikel word die stand van b/anke feminlste se akademiese geskrifte oor swart vroue ondersoek en verskillende strategiee wat aangewend kan word om die skep van 'n fiktiewe monoliet van "derde-wereld" vroue te vermy, word ook bekyk. In die ontleding van geskrifte van verset soos vervat in Caesarina Kona Makhoere se No Child's Play, word aandag geskenk aan diskursiewe gapings waaruit dit blyk op watter manier geslagsoor­wegings deur Makhoere se politieke ideologie oorstem word. Makhoere se teks word gebruik om die "matriks van oorheersing" te ondersoek waardeur die post-koloniale feministiese kritikus die gebruik van terme van binere opposisie kan vermy en nuwe maniere kan vind om die vraagstukke van onderwerping en agressie waar te neem.