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Profile
Research Areas
Gender and sexuality studies, African diasporic literature, Malawian oral literature, popular arts and culture, dress studies,
Profile
I am an Associate Professor in the English Department. I hold a PhD in English Studies from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, a Master of Arts in Literature and Bachelor of Arts Humanities degree from the University of Malawi. I teach courses in African literature, Feminist Theories and Practice, African-American literature as well as Creative Writing. I am a 2020 recipient of the Africa-Oxford Visiting Fellowship and in 2017, I was also a recipient of the prestigious American Council of Learned Societies African Humanities Program postdoctoral fellowship which is funded by Carnegie Corporations. I am currently working on a book manuscript on representations of sexualities in authoritarian contexts, which is based on my PhD work. My current research interests are in Malawian popular culture, dress studies, gender and sexualities in Africa, oral literature, religion and Afro-diasporic studies. I have published book chapters and several academic articles in journals such as Journal of the African Literature Association, Journal of Commonwealth Literature Hecate: International Journal of Women’s Liberation, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, Matatu Journal for African Culture and Society and Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies. I am also a published poet, a short fiction writer and a visual artist.
Publications
- Book Chapters
Mtenje, Asante L. (2021) “Putting her in her place: Gender and Sexual Violence in Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come and Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives” in Nnaemeka, O. and Nkealah, N. (eds) Gender Violence and Human Rights in Literature and Film: Perspectives from Africa and the African Diaspora, Routledge, pp.77-92. (2021)
- Book Chapters
Mtenje, Asante L. (2021) “Insulting the modesty of a woman?!: Examining the language of protest in Malawi” in Bonnerjee, S. (ed.) Subaltern Women’s Narratives: Strident Voices, Dissenting Bodies, Routledge, pp.34-42. (2021)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2019). “Rethinking the Nation: Intersections of race, desire and love in Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, pp. 1-17. (2019)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2019). “Something Radical!: Problematizing the Masculine State in Tendai Huchu’s The Hairdresser of Harare.” Journal of the African Literature Association, 13 (2,) pp. 1-16. (2019)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2019). “Building Ways and Dreams: Remembering Prof. David Rubadiri.” Journal of Humanities, 27 (1), pp.55-64. (2019)
- Journal Article
Ncube, G. and Mtenje, A.L. (2019) (Re)drawing the Limits of Marginality: ‘Whiteness’, Disability and Queer Sexuality in Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 28 (2), pp.1-16. (2019)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2018). ‘Colouredness’, Female Sexuality and Respectability in Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door. Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies 8 (2), pp. 1-19. (2018)
- Book Chapters
Mtenje, A.L (2018). “‘Under the Lion’s Gaze’: Female Sexualities Under Dictatorship in Selected Fiction from Malawi” in Grayson, H. and Baker, C. (eds.) Fictions of African Dictatorships: Cultural Representations of Postcolonial Power. Peter Lang AG Publishers, pp. 215-234. (2018)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2017). “‘Sex, Pleasures, Dangers, Love and Lies!’ Representing Female Sexualities in Selected Contemporary Poetry by Malawian Women”. Matatu 49 (1), pp. 156–181. (2017)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2017). “‘Bad Girls Get Raped, Good Girls Go to Heaven’: Sexuality and Respectability in Sefi Atta’s Everything Good will Come”. Hecate: International Journal of Women’s Liberation 42 (2), pp. 66-84. (2017)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A. L. (2017). “‘Celibacy is certainly not for me!’: Transgressive Sexualities in Male Children in Moses Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles”. Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3 (4), pp. 73-90. (2017)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2017).“Taming Untamed Pests: Representing Female Sexualities in Tiyambe Zeleza’s Smouldering Charcoal and James Ng’ombe’s Sugarcane with Salt”. Literator 38 (2), pp.1-8. (2017)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2017). "Modest Desires and Defiant Gestures: Representing Female Sexualities in Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish, Tales Out of Entebbe and Violet Barungi’s Cassandra”. Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 29 (1), pp. 26-36. (2017)
- Journal Article
Mtenje, A.L. (2016). Negotiating Patriarchy and Socialization in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy. Marang: Journal of Language and Literature 27, pp. 63-78. (2016)
