Elleke Boehmer: Stories of Women. Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation.

• Merle Tönnies

Boehmer’s study proceeds from the premise that conceptions of the postcolonial nation are always gendered. Sexual difference is used to represent national difference, and therefore male and female writers can be expected to differ in their constructions of nationhood. As the introduction points out, this issue has already been addressed in postcolonial studies, and Boehmer herself has indeed written about it quite extensively. However, she observes a distinct lack in the existing research as far as a comparative, cross-cultural framework is concerned. This diagnosis becomes the basis of the book in an almost programmatic manner. Most chapters draw together two or more authors from pointedly disparate contexts and attempt to create a “dialogue” between spaces that share the label of ‘periphery’.

Seiten 445 - 447