Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Die Farbe der Macht (Original 1974; 1987. Auflage)von Bessie Head (Autor)
Werk-InformationenDie Farbe der Macht von Bessie Head (1974)
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest.
Much of this novel explores the protagonist's experience with mental illness so it's not a particularly enjoyable read. But it seems ahead of its time for its unvarnished description of the experience. And similar to [b:When Rain Clouds Gather|28278|When Rain Clouds Gather|Bessie Head|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387749241l/28278._SY75_.jpg|2261015] there are vivid descriptions of life in Botswana and efforts to improve agricultural methods/life that are compelling. ( ) If ever I should muster the ability to relate to this madness - please put me out of my misery. It seems to me that Goodreads reviews are often like RottenTomato reviews - the more terrible the movie, the more stars it is given by "great minds." It's almost as if the great minds can't stand the thought of something being beyond them. No great mind here- and no danger in admitting that you couldn't PAY me to read this again. While there are moments of brilliance - it's not worth navigating the riptide of chaos that is the rest of the novel. Bessie Head (1937-1986) was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the product of a relationship between a wealthy white woman and an unknown black man, who was believed to be a farm hand on the family ranch where her mother, Bessie Amelia ("Toby") Emery, lived. Toby was committed to a local mental hospital after her parents learned of her pregnancy, which was taboo in that segregated country. She gave birth to Bessie in this hospital, and as she was deemed to be too mentally ill to raise the child Bessie was sent to live with a white family, who subsequently disowned her after they discovered that she was a "Coloured" (mixed race) girl. Her mother committed suicide after Bessie was taken away from her, so she was placed in a foster care with a black family until she was 13, and then sent to live in a mission orphanage in Durban. After she earned a teaching certificate she left the orphanage and taught briefly in Durban before she moved to Johannesburg to become a journalist. Her career was marred by racism and sexism, as she was the only female journalist for the publication she worked for. However, her career allowed her to meet members of the Pan Africanist Congress in the early 1960s, who sought the removal of the apartheid system in South Africa and a return to self government by black Africans. She was introduced to her future husband, Harold Head, an anti-apartheid activist, who she married in 1961 and subsequently divorced three years later. She joined the Pan Africanist Congress, and her activities led to her arrest and imprisonment. She sought asylum and left South Africa for neighboring Botswana with her son in 1964. She was accepted as an alien refugee there, on the condition that she would never attempt to return to her home country. Bessie Head taught and became an agricultural worker in Botswana, but was very lonely and was ostracized in her new surroundings, which led to a nervous breakdown and hospitalization in a mental health facility. She began to write after her release from hospital and slowly gained recognition for her short stories and novels, which allowed her to escape crushing poverty that resulted from her loss of work. Just as she was becoming an acclaimed writer she contracted hepatitis, which led to her premature death at the age of 48. A Question of Power, which was published in 1973, is a semi-autobiographical novel whose protagonist, Elizabeth, is a mixed race South African who fled to the Botswanan village of Motabeng, where she became a schoolteacher. Elizabeth, like her creator, struggled to fit into Botswanan society, and slowly descended into madness. The narrative features her unusual relationship with two mysterious men, who may or may not be real, and her hallucinatory fantasies are interspersed with her brief lucid periods. The novel can also be viewed as a metaphor for the disturbed state of apartheid South Africa, as well as the effects that this system had on its Black and Coloured residents. A Question of Power was a disturbing and difficult book to read, as I had a hard time following Elizabeth's schizophrenic thoughts. It is a powerful and inspired work of literature, though, and I do intend to read more of Bessie Head's books, particularly her autobiography A Woman Alone, in the near future.
Bessie Head (1937-1986) was born in a mental hospital in South Africa to a white mother. Her father was, presumably, a black stable hand. A Question of Power narrates a story of Elizabeth, with similar background. After a series of foster homes and receiving a colonial education in a missionary school, Elizabeth like Head in her time, takes an exit visa to Botswana to escape a bad relationship and the Apartheid-ridden South Africa. In A Question of Power the single mother migrant’s efforts to settle in a new country and community are interwoven with in experience of intense poverty and a mental breakdown. This remarkable book, written by an important and interesting African woman writer who left her native South Africa in 1964 on an "exit visa" (no return possible) and who was stateless for most of the rest of her life (it was 15 years before Botswana granted her citizenship) can be read on at least two levels. On the one hand, it is an insider description of the mind of a suffering, delusional person. On the other hand, it is an exploration of power relations and political-social evil. By conflating these two levels, Head demonstrates that social evil inflicted on individuals can lead quite literally to madness. This amazing novel was written by South African Bessie Head in 1974. Like the novel's protagonist, Elizabeth, Head was a schoolteacher with a failed marriage who eventually made her home in Botswana. A Question of Power picks up Elizabeth's story as she moves to Botswana and begins a four-year battle with undiagnosed schizophrenia. Gehört zu VerlagsreihenAfrican Writers (149)
Dieser frühe, autobiographisch gefärbte Roman Bessie Heads, einer der profiliertesten Schriftstellerinnen des südlichen Afrikas, erzählt von der Reise der Protagonistin Elizabeth in das Innere der Macht. Als Tochter einer Weißen, die, weil sie das Kind eines Schwarzen erwartet, in eine Nervenklinik eingeliefert wird und sich später das Leben nimmt, lebt Elizabeth in der Angst, selbst auch wahnsinnig zu werden. Eine Angst, die angesichts des alltäglichen Wahnsinns der Apartheid, dem sie ausgesetzt ist, nicht unbegründet ist. Sie wird Lehrerin, heiratet, flüchtet aber bald darauf mit ihrem Kind vor ihrem Mann und der sozialen Diskriminierung in Südafrika nach Botswana. Hier im Exil ergreifen ihre Ängste, Visionen und Alpträume bald ganz Besitz von ihr, wird sie wirklich verrückt. Überall entdeckt sie die Macht des Bösen, ist den dunklen Seiten in sich und den anderen auf der Spur. Bessie Head zeichnet diese Geschichte einer Verstörung in beklemmenden Bildern und legt Schicht um Schicht die Innenwelt eines Menschen frei, der vor der Hölle der Wirklichkeit in die Abgründe des Wahnsinns geflohen ist. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenGroup Read, August 2023: A Question of Power in 1001 Books to read before you die Beliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823Literature English & Old English literatures English fictionKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |