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Profile
Research Areas
Gender and sexuality studies, African diasporic literature, Malawian oral literature, popular arts and culture, dress studies,
Profile
Asante Lucy Mtenje is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literary Studies at University of Malawi where she teaches courses in African literature. She holds a PhD in English Studies from Stellenbosch University. Her research has been published as book chapter contributions and in academic journals such as Journal of Commonwealth Literature, African Studies Review, Hecate: International Journal of Women’s Liberation, Journal of the African Literature Association, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, Matatu Journal for African Culture and Society and Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies. Her current research interests include gender and sexualities, Malawian life writing, Afro-diasporic literature, popular culture and Malawian oral literature. She is a receipt of a number of fellowships including the STIAS Iso Lomso Fellowship (2022-2025), JIAS Creative Writing Fellowship (2021), the Africa-Oxford (AfOx) Visiting Fellowship (2020) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)- African Humanities Program (AHP) postdoctoral fellowship (2017). She is also a published poet and short story writer. Her debut poetry collection, Forms of Slaughter and Other Poems, was published in 2024. She was also the project lead of the Copyright Society of Malawi funded project “Malawi Writing Better” which was implemented by the Department of Literary Studies at University of Malawi.
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)
