I'm Not One of Them but I'm Not One of You : An Analysis of The Effects of Patriarchy and Hybridity in Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions

Abstract: This essay examines how the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy are portrayed and how these factors contribute to the formation of hybrid identities among the younger generation of women in Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Both characters are faced with different predicaments which makes it necessary to divide the factors in regard to each character. The factors that are connected to Tambudzai are the following: the death of Nhamo, the patriarchal male figures, and the will to obtain an education. Meanwhile, the factors that are connected to Nyasha are the relationship with her patriarchal father, the desire for liberation and gender equality. Postcolonial and feminist criticism are applied. The main focus of the essay is hybridity, or double identity, where the specific term cultural hybridity is used in order to analyze the effect that the struggle against the patriarchy has had on Tambudzai's and Nyasha's emerging hybrid identities. The feminist-psychoanalytic approach is used to analyze the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy.  The results show that the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy have been visible and crucial to the formation of their hybrid identities. The struggle that Tambudzai and Nyasha have to face when going against the patriarchal system brings certain predicaments in their lives that affect them and their identity tremendously. One of these predicaments is the realization that patriarchy is universan and, hence, something you cannot escape.