Gendered Violence and Human Rights in Black World Literature and Film

This book investigates how the intersection between gendered violence and human rights is depicted and engaged with in Africana literature and films.

The rich and multifarious range of film and literature emanating from Africa and the diaspora provides a fascinating lens through which we can understand the complex consequences of gendered violence on the lives of women, children and minorities. Contributors to this volume examine the many ways in which gendered violence mirrors, expresses, projects and articulates the larger phenomenon of human rights violations in Africa and the African diaspora and how, in turn, the discourse of human rights informs the ways in which we articulate, interrogate, conceptualise and interpret gendered violence in literature and film. The book also shines a light on the linguistic contradictions and ambiguities in the articulation of gendered violence in private spaces and war.

This book will be essential reading for scholars, critics, feminists, teachers and students seeking solid grounding in exploring gendered violence and human rights in theory and practice.

Naomi Nkealah is a Lecturer in English in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Obioma Nnaemeka is Chancellor’s Professor of French, Africana Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA. She is the President of the Association of African Women Scholars and CEO of the Jessie Obidiegwu Education Fund that is dedicated to the education of girls in Africa.