“Hear from my own lips”
The Language of Women’s Autobiographies
In: The Politics of English as a World LanguageSearch for other papers by Eleonora Chiavetta in
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Abstract
The aim of this essay is to focus on the relationship between identity, culture and the use of language in women’s autobiographical writings in English. The essay mainly analyses Buchi Emecheta’s autobiography Head above Water (1986) and Sindiwe Magona’s autobiographical texts To My Children’s Children (1990) and Forced to Grow (1992). The three works are interesting examples of the plurality and non-homogeneity of autobiographical female voices. Emphasis is given to the relationship between oral and written literature, the use of figurative language exploited by the two writers, the rhetorical devices they employ and the impact of Western literary models upon their own writing.