Abstract
This paper explores the subtle explorations of homosocial desire in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s 1996 film Everyone’s Child. In her deft, though subtle, treatment of the social bonds among young males in the film, the filmmaker opens a space for queer readings. Societal inscriptions of gender and sexuality are also queried, as a teen engages in sex work to provide for herself and her orphaned siblings. While the film has been described as a film “about AIDS and orphans” (Lee, 2006, p.135), the paper proposes that Everyone’s Child is so much more than this. The paper considers the work of Sommerville (2000) on queer theory in African American women’s domestic novels of the 19th century and builds on the scholarship of Kennedy (2008), and the interviews of Lee (2006) and Thein (2013) among others.
Recommended Citation
Splawn, P. Jane
(2019)
"Homosocial Desire in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Everyone’s Child,"
Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies: Vol. 20:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/wagadu/vol20/iss1/6
Included in
African History Commons, History of Gender Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons