Réactions des femmes face au conflit de genre dans C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée et Tu t’appelleras Tanga de Calixthe Beyala

Abstract

This paper examines the reactions of women to gender conflict in Calixthe Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga. Driven by the impulse of feminism, Beyala brings to the fore the age-old conflict between man and woman as fuelled by traditional values which serve as ideological grounding for manipulation and oppressive exploitation of women by their male counterparts. This antithetical situation resulting from biological differences between the two sexes is the source of perpetual conflict which serves as raw material for these two Beyala‟s narrative texts. The study seeks to critically reflect on the various ways women in Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga react to oppression and exploitation resulting from patriarchal domination. It therefore examines the sources, nature of this conflict, and how women react to it in the two novels. Besides, it critically examines the extent to which these reactions are justified. The study points to the fact that, much as conflict emanating from patriarchal oppression and male‟s domination in human societies is inimical to the rights of women, the methods used by the latter to free themselves from this state of being remain questionable, in that, these methods defy rational thinking and are also a kind of reversal oppression and domination which are equally unacceptable. The paper is posited within Carolyn Allen‟s (1978) feminist conceptual framework. It is based on critical literary analysis of textual data collected from the aforementioned narrative texts of Beyala.