Violence and the Performance of Masculinity in Dudu Busani Dube’s Hlomu the Wife and Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers
Blessing Phakathi 
, Aghogho Akpome & Vuyiswa Ndabayakhe
Issue: Vol.10 No. 6 June 2024 Special Issue Article 3 pp.19-25
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241063 | Published online 6th June, 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
The purpose of this article was to explore the critique of male chauvinism in two important recent novels authored by South African women, Hlomu the Wife by Dudu Busani-Dube and The Gold Diggers by Sue Nyathi. Using a qualitative analysis of the two novels, the study demonstrated how intimate spaces operate as potential sites of violence. The study also highlighted how the novels grapple with the symbiotic relationship between physical and/or psychological violence and the transformation of masculinities in intimate relationships. The representation of men by these women authors dramatises the extent to which intimate partner violence might be linked with the disjuncture between patriarchal cultural expectations and men’s lived experiences. This is especially so regarding the public and private performances of masculinity in ways that tend to glorify violent behaviours. Drawing on Pumla Gqola’s exploration of intimate spaces as incubators of fear as well as Robert Morrell’s notion of the ‘new man,’ the article offers valuable insights into some of the psycho-social characteristics of South Africa’s endemic crisis of violence against women.
Keywords: Masculinity, Patriarchy, Gender Violence, Dudu Busani-Dube, Sue Nyathi
Busani-Dube, Dudu. Hlomu the Wife. Pretoria: Hlomu Publishing, 2015.
Clingman, Stephen. “Writing Spaces: Fiction and Non-Fiction in South Africa.” Safundi 13, no. 1–2 (2012): 51–58.
Dlamini, Nonhlanhla. “The Transformation of Masculinity in Contemporary Black South African Novels .” University of the Witwatersrand, 2015.
Gqola, Phumla Dineo. Female Fear Factory: Dismantling Patriarchy’s Violent Toolkit. United Kingdom: Cassava Republic Press, 2021.
Morrell, Robert. “Of Boys and Men: Masculinity and Gender in Southern African Studies.” Journal of Southern African Studies 24, no. 4 (1998): 605–630.
Nyathi, Susan. The Gold Diggers. Johannesburg: Macmillan: South Africa, 2019.
Reeser, Todd W, and Lucas Gottzén. “Masculinity and Affect: New Possibilities, New Agendas.” Norma. Taylor & Francis, 2018.
Blessing Phakathi is a Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Zululand, South Africa. Research focus: Gender, masculinity, migration.
Aghogho Akpome is an Associate Professor at the Department of English, University of Zululand. Research focus: Decolonisation, African Thought, African Literatures, narratives, representation, discourses, migration.
Vuyiswa Ndabayakhe is a Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Zululand, South Africa Research focus: Gender, African Literature, especially women-authored texts.
Phakathi, Blessing, Aghogho Akpome & Vuyiswa Ndabayakhe. “Violence and the Performance of Masculinity in Dudu Busani Dube’s Hlomu the Wife and Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 10 no.6 Special Issue(2024): 19-25. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20241063
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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