Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:25:38.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

6 - ‘Ashewo no be job’: The Figure of the Modern Girl in the Digital Age

Get access

Summary

The text is home to thoughts

and its context the rudder

steering readers from flaws.

The text is voice inscribed in cold print,

Readers with mental tools can decode

Signs, symbols, & codes within.

Texts respond to texts, linking

writers with a past not seen.

The inter-text, hidden between the lines

only the alert can bring to live.

(Koleade Odutola xvii)

Much of the creative work that came out of the first half of the last century looked at alienation and disaffection, which fictional narrators and readers of literature regularly blamed on growing urbanisation and the negative effect of modernity on young people, especially young women. Nowadays, several short stories that are being published in the digital space are still preoccupied with the life of urban dwellers and the mannerisms of those who are identified with that space. In the twenty-first century, members of the digital public who are commenting on these stories are as fascinated by the subject as were previous generations. When examining urban settings, I am referring to the lived practices and representations through which a variety of spaces are constituted within the scope of cities such as Lagos and Nairobi. In this chapter, I use creative writings, published over the course of a century across print and digital mediums, to historicise the interest –of writers and readers alike –in the trope of the modern girl. If we analyse some of the creative writings online, we see a continuation of the tradition where texts and images report on intimacy. From the precolonial era to the colonial period and to the digital era, the African body, as a sexual being, has always been at the centre of political discourses, through artistic interventions. The artworks of societies such as the ancient Benin and Yoruba (Oyo) kingdoms underlined the intersection of sexuality with religion and politics, especially among the ruling classes of that era. Several verses in Odu-Ifa (the Yoruba main theological text) are poems that are sexually explicit, with some graphically depicting the pleasure of sex. Carvings and statues in many ruling houses include imagery of nudity and the erotic.

Type
Chapter
Information
African Literature in the Digital Age
Class and Sexual Politics in New Writing from Nigeria and Kenya
, pp. 113 - 128
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×