Female stereotyping in Xhosa prose fiction and folk-tales

Abstract

This article is an extract from a broader study (Mtuze, 1990) on a critique of the image of women in Xhosa literature. It is an attempt to establish whether the numerous stereotypes found in Xhosa literature have their source in the folktale. In this paper human female characters in the folk-tale are analysed in terms of the feminist ideology. The folktales in the following books will cursorily be considered: Ezinye iintsomi zamaXhosa by W.P.T. Ndibongo and E.N. Ntloko, The Xhosa Ntsomi by H. Scheub, Folk-tales from Mpondoland by J.V. Cantrell.