A feminism straddling two continents : a study of the feminist ideas in the novel Les Honneurs perdus and the essay Lettre d'une Africaine à ses sœurs occidentales by Calixthe Beyala

This study examines the feminist ideas in Calixthe Beyala's fictional novel Les Honneurs perdus (1996) and her essay Lettre d'une Africaine à ses sœurs occidentales (1995). The description of women's situation and their possible liberation in these two texts are analyzed, notably based on the feminist theories articulated by Simone de Beauvoir and by Judith Butler. The analysis demonstrates that the women in these texts live in a patriarchal society where they are oppressed and dominated by men. Religion and tradition serve as a way of internalizing this oppression. Early on, the women learn that their sexuality is owned by men, and that the main purpose of their existence is to get married and have children. However, Beyala also demonstrates a possiblity for women to reclaim their subjectivity and to liberate themselves from men's oppression, mainly through gaining awareness of the oppression, getting access to education and finding solidarity between women. In the last chapter of the analysis, Beyala's vision of the woman as the savior of the world is questioned, and the importance of the postcolonial context is considered. The study concludes that Beyala's feminist ideas consist of a fusion of, on one hand, Western feminist theories such as those based on the works of Beauvoir and, on the other hand, ideas of solidarity characteristic for the African continent. This creates a feminism which, just like Beyala herself, straddles two continents