User:KeyGSU/sandbox

More could be added to the plot summary (slightly inaccurate and vague). Greater detail about plot but without giving too much information on the story as it is only a summary. Line following history of publication.

Analysis is weak (needs to be lengthened, detailed, at least two sources). After a summary a well thought out analysis of the book would be very useful Information.

A reception section has to be added. Then should be broken up into three key sections:

1. Reception in Senegal for a perspective of how people in the authors home country received it. 2. Reception in Africa on the whole. Would be useful to know what others on the continent thought and if there was any common understanding of the book. 3. Reception worldwide. To get an idea of how wide reaching the impact is.

Research will be done on all three categories of reception. Utilizing libraries, literary media and sources in newspapers or magazines.

French colonialism came to Senegal in the 1800s and enforced a separation of church and state. However many still abide by the Qu'ran's laws which shape ideas of gender roles, family life, marriage, and the patrilineal male dominated society.

Plot Summary
So long a letter, or in its original French publication, Une si long letter, is written as a series of letters, known as an epistolary novel, from the main character Ramatoulaye Fall to her best friend Aissatou following the sudden death from heart attack of Ramatoulaye's husband Moudou Ba. The letter is written while Ramatoulaye is going through 'Iddah, a four month and ten day mourning process that widow of the Muslim Senegalese culture must follow. Ramatoulaye begins her first letters by recalling and describing the emotions that flooded her during the first few days after her husband's death and speaks in detail about how he lost his life. She transitions the tone and time by discussing the life she had with her husband, from the beginning of their relationship to his betrayal of a thirty year marriage by secretly marrying his daughter's school best friend to the life he had with his second wife. Throughout this short and compelling novel, Ramatoulaye details to Assiatou, who experienced a similar but different marital situation, how she emotionally dealt with and changed by his betrayal, his death, and being a single mother of many.

Analysis
The letter covered many topics such as polygynie, Senegalese class hierarchy, and religion so, it was difficult to place the genre of the book. Some called it a novel while others referred to Bâ's work as a letter. Author and associate professor Uzoma Esonwanne interpreted the book as a challenge to colonialism while also acknowledging colonial practices. The character Ramatoulaye's insistence on being heard and providing inside commentary on the downside of polygyny, made Esonwanne question the part gender plays in this new era of the world.

Author and Yale professor Christopher L. Miller found Ba's So Long a Letter more journal-like, in that it held her written letter(s) with no one answering back.

Themes
So Long a Letter deals with multiple themes, which includes the life of women in Senegal during the 1970s and 1980s, family and community life, Islam and polygamy, and death rituals.


 * Little Nabou: Raised by Mawdo's mother, Grande Nabou. She is brought up under very traditional Muslim customs and becomes a midwife. She later marries Mawdo Bâ to be his second wife. She is the niece of Grande Nabou and the first cousin of Mawdo Bâ.
 * Grande Nabou: Mawdo Bâ's mother, who influences him to marry Little Nabou. She dislikes Aïssatou since she comes from a working-class family and her father is a jewelry maker. Grande Nabou is a princess from a royal family in Senegal and is very conservative in her views and traditions.

Reception
The letter was used in the U.S. to study how strong bonds women formed influenced them. p 74-75. Ramatoulaye and Aissatou’s friendship helped them break away from social norms, gaining social and political respect without a male. It was also used to understand women’s views on polygamy. Women in Senegal see fault in polygamy and fight against it. Aissatou leaves her husband for practicing polygamy Ramatoulaye says no to marriage to another man. Critics studied the novel's informal voice, some writing it off as a personal experience rather than the story of many Senegalese women at the time. The author was praised for her involvement in expanding African literature as well as feminism through personal accounts of her life.