The document provides an outline for a research project analyzing Noviolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names. The project will examine how the novel depicts the search for utopia in relation to migration and political disillusionment in Zimbabwe. It justifies the topic by explaining the increasing rates of African migration and disillusionment with finding opportunity elsewhere. The objective is to show how the novel portrays the disillusionment experienced by the main character Darling after migrating to America in search of a better life. A sociological and psychological methodology will be used. The project will be divided into two parts analyzing the causes of migration and the obstacles experienced. Key sources for analysis include criticism of the novel and other works exploring themes of
The document provides an outline for a research project analyzing Noviolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names. The project will examine how the novel depicts the search for utopia in relation to migration and political disillusionment in Zimbabwe. It justifies the topic by explaining the increasing rates of African migration and disillusionment with finding opportunity elsewhere. The objective is to show how the novel portrays the disillusionment experienced by the main character Darling after migrating to America in search of a better life. A sociological and psychological methodology will be used. The project will be divided into two parts analyzing the causes of migration and the obstacles experienced. Key sources for analysis include criticism of the novel and other works exploring themes of
The document provides an outline for a research project analyzing Noviolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names. The project will examine how the novel depicts the search for utopia in relation to migration and political disillusionment in Zimbabwe. It justifies the topic by explaining the increasing rates of African migration and disillusionment with finding opportunity elsewhere. The objective is to show how the novel portrays the disillusionment experienced by the main character Darling after migrating to America in search of a better life. A sociological and psychological methodology will be used. The project will be divided into two parts analyzing the causes of migration and the obstacles experienced. Key sources for analysis include criticism of the novel and other works exploring themes of
The document provides an outline for a research project analyzing Noviolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names. The project will examine how the novel depicts the search for utopia in relation to migration and political disillusionment in Zimbabwe. It justifies the topic by explaining the increasing rates of African migration and disillusionment with finding opportunity elsewhere. The objective is to show how the novel portrays the disillusionment experienced by the main character Darling after migrating to America in search of a better life. A sociological and psychological methodology will be used. The project will be divided into two parts analyzing the causes of migration and the obstacles experienced. Key sources for analysis include criticism of the novel and other works exploring themes of
African literature is characterized by its unity be it Francophone or Anglophone.
That literature includes the oral tradition, the African customs, the Africans ‘experience in Africa and out of Africa. Many African writers have focus their attention on Africans’ experience in Africa and out of Africa; we have writers such as Noviolet Bulawayo, Chika Unigwe’s, to quote only a few. Those are what we call by commited writers, for, they portray the realities of African societies, denounce social evils and act as teachers, moralists…
The purpose of this work, is to show how Noviolet Bulawayo’ We Need New Names talks about the search of a utopia in relation to migration.
1- Justification of the topic
I have chosen this topic because the search of a utopia is becoming for Africans a target reality. Africa is seeing the deportation of its population that believe to find a utopia out of Africa. Attracted by the hopes to find the perceived land of abundant opportunities. Many studies show that the search for a utopia is preceded by the negation of reality and also that disillusionment is an inevitable phase in the search for utopia. And lastly they argue that ‘’there is no place like home’’. They concluded that the search for utopia is the alternative way of escaping reality. In fact, I have chosen to study Noviolet Bulawayo because, she belongs to that Africans who have experienced African realities and lived abroad, experiencing other culture and concluded that ‘’there is no place like home’’. She honors her country by changing her name to Bulawayo, a shantytown in Zimbabwe and also honors her lovely mother by taking her name ‘’Noviolet’’. I have chosen that topic because I want to say to Africans that ‘’ Everywhere where people live, there is always misery and also we can make our Africa the utopia that we are always searching in Europe or America. 2- Objective The objective of this study is to show that Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names explores how political disillusionment has triggered off the search for utopia in relation to migration. Portraying Darling, a victim of Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsiva, has journeyed to America as to find other opportunities. I want to show that, in feeing poverty in Zimbabwe to search for a better life in America, disillusionment is unavoidable because utopia is associated with disillusionment.
3- Problematic a- Central question How does Noviolet Bulawayo depict the search for a utopia in her novel We Need New Names? b- Hypothesis Being born in Africa especially in Zimbabwe, and grown up out of her homeland, Noviolet has experienced immigration and she has struggled with fitting in, find her way in a new space and considering her novel We Need New Names having part of her experience
4- Review of the relative literature
Being the first African woman to win the ‘’Man Booker Prize 2013’’, her novel We Need New Names has received from all over the world a particular attention. A lot of critics have been made; we have for example, Babacar Diakhate, in his article explains how political disillusionment has caused the search for utopia. He has linked that search in relation to migration. And argues that We Need New Names is a great novel that has portray that fact. Mamadou Abdou Babou Ngom uses We Need New Names as a stepping-stone to explain how migration is an astoundingly painful experience to go through. His article emphasizes that even though the act of the migratory is focus on a hope for betterment, it may turn out to be a damp squid.
5- Methodology I will be using two main approaches: Sociological approach and psychological approach.
6- Plan I suggest to divide it into two parts. The first part will be devoted into causes of that pushes characters especially Darling to search for a utopia, the second part will be dealing with her life being based on consequences or obstacles that she accounted or experienced.
7- Summary of the novel We Need New Names
We Need New Names is the debut novel of expatriate Zimbabwean writer Noviolet Bulawayo. It was published in 2013 and contains 304 pages. The novel can be summarized as the following:
Darling is a young girl living in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s. After her family's home was bulldozed in the midst of a political upheaval, she, her family, and many more are forced to set up a village called Paradise. Darling spends her days with her friends, playing games and going into Budapest to steal guavas. Sometimes, an NGO comes to drop off clothing, toys, and food. On Sundays, Mother of Bones - the woman who takes care of Darling while her father works in South Africa and her mother sells goods - takes Darling to a church congregation that meets on top of a mountain called Fambeki, led by Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro. Darling and her friends process the harsh realities of society around them through their games and conversations, such as wondering about the gender of their friend Chipo's baby, pretending to be the people who killed a young man named Bornfree for his political involvements, and arguing over which world powers they get to be when playing country-game. Darling's father returns, sick with AIDS, and she must care for him for a time, which she hates because it takes her away from her friends.
Then, quite suddenly in the winter of 2008, Darling moves to America to live with her Aunt Fostalina and her family in Michigan, as she told her friends she would someday have to do throughout the first half of the book. Darling adapts to American culture quickly but misses her home and her friends. She sometimes behaves inappropriately, such as disciplining and hitting someone else's child while at a wedding. Darling lives a normal high school student's life: dabbling in porn, going for joyrides with her friends, and taking on two part-time jobs to save money for community college. However, her connection to Zimbabwe always nags at her as she grows further apart from her friends and family, exacerbated by her inability to return for a visit because she has already overstayed her visa. In a climactic moment, Chipo accuses her of abandoning her country and tells her she cannot call Zimbabwe her country any more. The novel ends with her uncle telling her that they have found bin Laden, which causes Darling to remember a game she and her friends used to play.
8- BIBLIOGRAPHY a- Novels Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names Sefi Atta’s New From Home; Swallow Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters Street b- Articles Carmen Cencilio (2018) ‘’ We Need New Names: Paradigms of migration; Fligh and the Fall’’ Mamadou Abdou (2020) ‘’Migration and its Discontents: A Political Rendering of Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names’’ Babacar Diakhate (2018) ‘’Politics, Utopia and Disillusionment in Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names
Instant Access to Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business: Applications and Ethical Considerations, Third Edition John David Blackburn ebook Full Chapters
Instant Access to Essentials of the Legal Environment of Business: Applications and Ethical Considerations, Third Edition John David Blackburn ebook Full Chapters
