A feminist stylistic analysis of the selected poems from My Heart in Your Hands: Poems from Namibia

Abstract

This study provides a feminist stylistic analysis of fifteen (15) selected poems from My Heart in Your Hands: Poems from Namibia from a feminist stylistic perspective, thus the study examines language and gender in anthropology. The research aimed to examine how lexis is used to represent women in the selected poems; to analyse how syntax is used to show the roles of women in society and to evaluate how gender issues are communicated at the discourse level. In recent years, many Namibian women have turned to language to recast themselves and give a voice to the voiceless and marginalised through literature. The female poets disclosed the subjugation of women by the patriarchal system. Women characters were represented as second to men, wicked, weak and victims of sexual, verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their loved ones. In the poems, women are represented as emotional, and worthless. As the study was a desk study, it adopted the qualitative approach to analyse the sampled poems that were purposively sampled as they are primarily thematic concerns of gender and that are written by women. Moreover, content analysis was used to analyse and interpret the meaning from the selected poems. Finally, the poets used discourse level to communicate the gender issues faced by women such as oppression, discrimination, and exploitation and they are voiceless as men shut them through abuse when they speak up. Therefore, women are portrayed as domestic workers, caretakers, and child bearers. They are given household duties as their roles throughout the selected poems.