Browsing by Author "Tsfalidet, Tekle"

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    The Portrayal of Major Female Characters in Four Amharic Novels
    (Addis Ababa Universiy, 2008-02) Tsfalidet, Tekle; Mengistu, Melakneh
    A number of studies have been conducted at both undergraduate and post graduate levels to study the portrayal of women characters in literature though most of them seem to lack depth for they were not analyzed from a clearly defined theoretical frame work. Besides, in previous studies, much attention has not been given to the discussion of the portrayal of women ch aracters in novels written at different periods to find whether strong and liberated women a re appearing in view of the changing real ities. The aim of this thesis is, therefore, to analyze the portrayal of major female characters in four Amharic novels, written during the pre-Italian occupation (1908-1935), the post war period (1941-1958) and the modern period (1950s and 1960s), and see if new images of women are emerging. The novels selected for discussion include: Afework Gebreyesus's Tobya (1908), Hiruy Woldeselassie's Yelib Hassab: Yebirhanena Yetsion Mogessa Gabicha (1931), Negash Gebremariam's Setegna Adari (1964) anct Bealu Girma's Kadma's Bashager (1970). Major characters have been identified and discussed separately in the order of the publication of each book. The portrayals are analyzed from the feminist perspective. The thes is has five chapters. In the first chapter, the statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, limitations of the study, methodology and organization of the paper are presented. In chapter two, feminist theories, literary criticism and review of related literature have been discussed. In chapter three, the portrayal of the female characters is discussed. In chapter four, comparative analyses of the portrayals are presented. Finally, conclusions are given in chapter five. The main finding of thi s study is th at women characlers are portrayed in their traditional and biological roles . They are depicted as loyal housewives, mothers, mistresses, lovers and sex objects. For insta nce, Afework's Tobya is pres ented as beautiful, pious, selfless and physically and menta lly strong. However, despite her tremendous positive qualities, in the end she becomes a mere housewife, h er main role being bearing and taking care of children. Hiruy's Tsion Mogessa is presented as cute and intelligent. She ch ooses to learn writing and reading history instead of preparing tej and tella and cooking and baking enjera. Notwithstanding this however, after her ma rriage she becomes a mere housewife cheerfully performing domes tic duties su ch as cooking and serving within the traditional milieu. Negash 's Ena nu , a victim of early marriage, escapes from a jealous and cruel husband to fin a lly become a prostitute. She bea rs an illegitimate child for whose sake she qui ts her job and as a consequence she suffers from a bject poverty and en dless mishaps. Bealu's Lulit is first presented as proud, assertive a nd aggres s ive. After her marriage, however, she turns out to be weak, timid , selfless and a devout wife who places her husband before herself. Even if glorified as virtuous, devout, intelligent and physically strong for thematic purposes, their ultimate ambition is ma rriage and they are expected to be loyal, obedient and selfless mothers. Other than in the h ouse sphere, they don't participa te in social and political life. Hence, educated , self-reliant and strong women who take part in all areas of life have not been portrayed in the four novels discussed.