Critical Lens: Gender by Isaac Nelson https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu An analysis of Mariama Bâ's "So Long a Letter" en-us 2020-02-07 18:23:17 UTC 2025-11-06 03:47:35 UTC hello@padlet.com juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445631869 “Senegal.” Africa, africa.unwomen.org/en/where-we-are/west-and-central-africa/senegal.]]> 2020-02-14 15:27:11 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445631869 Gender in Senegal Then and Now juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445634574 “So Long a Letter” was published in 1979. Being a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel, the text includes some fictional aspects but it also includes situations that were similar to Ba's life. This means that there must have been serious issues of inequality between the genders when she was living in Senegal. Through some research I found that there are still many issues related to gender inequality still in Senegal but there have been more laws put in place recently to fight for gender equality.

Check out - “In Senegal, men make on average $142 more than women per month. This is the 15th largest gap in Africa, according to the World Economic Forum” ("Let's talk about feminism")

“Let's Talk about Feminism. -Senegalese Women in Leadership Positions.” Let's Talk about Feminism. -Senegalese Women in Leadership Positions | Global Citizen Year, www.globalcitizenyear.org/updates/lets-talk-about-feminism-senegalese-women-in-leadership-positions/.
]]> 2020-02-14 15:31:38 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445634574 Taking a Step Back to Look From a Different Perspective juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445635823 If I imagined the text from the shoes of one of another gender identity, in this case it would be a binary construct switch from my identity as a male to a female. If I tried to look at this text from a female’s perspective, I would be even more outraged at how Senegalese women were objectified in the marriage of a husband and a wife. It is impossible for me to look at the text from a woman's perspective because I clearly am not one and I do not think like a woman but I can make a reasonable assumption that the women in the narrator’s Senegalese culture clearly saw the inequality between the male and female genders as wrong.]]> 2020-02-14 15:33:50 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445635823 In a Society Driving a Binary Construct juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445636180 Living in a culture heavily influenced by Islam, religious laws played a factor in inforcing the family roles of only males and females and children. This influenced the forced binary construction of exclusively males and females in Islamic society. The author focuses on the binary constructions of males and females but makes clear that Ramatoulaye held strong to her beliefs on feminism and equality.

]]> 2020-02-14 15:34:28 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445636180 Gender Stereotypes juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445638921 She was surrounded by a man-dominated society which enforced gender stereotypes. These gender stereotypes are undermined when Aissatou divorces her husband to live a more free life. Both Aissatou and Ramatoulaye undermine the gender stereotypes forced on them. Ramatoulaye undermines the stereotype of a submissive housewife when she boldly rejects men for asking for her hand in marriage after her husband’s death.

]]> 2020-02-14 15:39:20 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445638921 The Role of Gender and Roles of the Genders juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445640314 The gender of the narrator definitely impacted her life through the experiences she endured. Ramatoulaye had to endure the degrading role of being a married senegalese woman, and stay true to her personal convictions as a strong Muslim. Even though she technically had similar legal rights, she did not have nearly the same amount of opportunities as her husband did and was practically owned by him. There were clearly different roles for males and females. At the time of her husband’s funeral, only the men could take away the body and mourn while the women stayed back and cooked and hosted others, which was mostly Ramatoulaye’s unfortunate duty. When gifts of bank notes were given as condolences, she did not get possession of basically any of it and she was used by her family for their comfort and convenience. Also, no matter how long she had been married to Modou as a housewife, he treated her the same as his other wife who he had been married to for a sixth of the amount of time as she had.

]]> 2020-02-14 15:41:37 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445640314 juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445641405 “Woman Writes a Letter.” Shutterstock, www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shutterstock.com%2Fvideo%2Fclip-2169167-woman-writes-letter---black-background&psig=AOvVaw03izQZBF1JIvDQKVtu9hm2&ust=1581712000825000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCIje68Wuz-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD.]]> 2020-02-14 15:43:28 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445641405 The Importance of Gender and a Short Explanation of the Text juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445642928 Bâ wrote “So Long a Letter” to reflect some events that similarly happened in her own life but to also add some elements that were fictional to make the story flow better. The text is based around Ramatoulaye, Senegalese woman who writes to her old friend, Aissatou, who lived in America at the time. Ramatoulaye sends many letters reflecting and explaining the hardships she encounters in her life while still living in Dakar, Senegal with her family and Aissatou’s old husband. A few of these main hardships include Ramtoulaye’s husband abandoning her for another wife, forcing a polygamistic relationship which she hates but is legal and accepted in their Mulsim culture, being required to mourn and take in her husband’s family when her husband dies, and watching her friend’s daughters and her own daughter give in to the tempation of destructive habits. Throughout the text, it is clear that Ramatoulaye is a strong woman and feminist but she is caught in an internal battle between respecting her Islamic beliefs, doing what she feels is just, and keeping her personality when she is treated as an object by some of her family. The pressure she receives to act as a submissive housewife and endure demeaning actions against her are largely due to her gender.

Patriotic Vanguard. “Profile: Senegalese Writer Mariama Ba.” The Patriotic Vanguard, 30 July 2013, www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/profile-senegalese-writer-mariama-ba.]]> 2020-02-14 15:46:33 UTC https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445642928 Reading "So Long a Letter" Through a Gender Lens juggleman20 https://padlet.com/juggleman20/mcmltvy9sbfu/wish/445643988 A gender lens asks us to read a text for its gender related issues or attitudes towards gender. This includes looking at significant issues or attitudes that relate to the gender of the author or the main characters, considering gender stereotypes and how they may be reinforced or undermined, observing the roles of people based off of their gender in a binary or non-binary construct, and visualising reading the text from another gender identity’s perspective (Von Steuben). I will look at all of these focuses as I analyze So Long a Letter, a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel written first in French by a Senegalese feminist named Mariama Bâ.

"Eight Critical Lenses Through Which Readers Can View Texts," Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, 2016.

“So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 28 June 1989, www.goodreads.com/book/show/151374.So_Long_a_Letter.
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