The Aquatic Woman: The Role of Water and the Feminine Divine in Mia Couto’s Terra Sonâmbula

Maisha Mitchell

doi:10.21471/jls.v2i2.45

The Aquatic Woman: The Role of Water and the Feminine Divine in Mia Couto’s Terra Sonâmbula

Maisha Mitchell Independent Scholar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21471/jls.v2i2.45

Keywords: Mozambique, Spirituality, Women, Violence, Postcolonialism

Abstract

Mia Couto's 1992 novel, Terra Sonâmbula, is known for its use of fantastic realism to convey the horrors of the Mozambican civil war and their effects. The supernatural invades the daily experience of the novel’s characters, and these move from the known world into a frequently aqueous and spiritual one. In this essay, I examine Couto's use of water, the supernatural, and the feminine and link these to African religious and cosmological origins. I see Couto's use of the black feminine aqueous divine as an alternate form of national history that gives voice to those who often go unheard in the chaos of war, particularly women and children.

Author Biography

Maisha Mitchell, Independent Scholar

Maisha Mitchell is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she earned a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese Literatures and Cultures.

Published

2017-12-12

Issue

Vol 2 No 2 (2017): Special Dossier on Brazilian Eco-Criticism

Section

Articles

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