The Portrayal of Adaptation to Family Disintegration in "She No Longer Weeps" and "Why Don't You Carve Other Animals"
Simon Tayengwa
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2.1, Zimbabwe Open University, course: BA English and Communication, language: English, abstract: This research set out to explore how victims of family disintegration adapt to their quandary as presented in the literary works of of Dangarembga and Vera in She No Longer Weeps and Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals respectively. The researcher looked at causes and effects of family disintegration. The African family structure goes beyond the Western nuclear family as it encompasses the kindred. In order to enrich the enquiry and the findings, the theoretical framework the researcher applied originated from the Marxist, Feminist, Post-colonial, Africana Womanist, and Reader Response Theories. Their interwoven dynamic articulation helped in bringing out the outcome. From the analysis of the texts in question, the researcher found out that adaptation to family disintegration is as versatile as are the causes and effects of family discord. Adaptation had its projection from both a positive or negative perspective and the outcome could not be detached from either of the perspectives albeit certain traits could not hint a tallying prediction. It can be inferred that adaptation has its propensity more to intuition and conscious and subconscious response to the environment than reasoning. The researcher recommended a prolific and more balanced approach to family disintegration from the female writer’s perspective. A sense of hope had to be instilled in the mindset of victims so that they do not accept the negative impact of fate was another recommendation. The researcher also recommended positive solutions to perennial problems affecting families within literary works as pointing them out was not enough
