Figurations of the Female Other in Niketche, by Paulina Chiziane

Abstract

This article analyzes the figurations of the feminine as the Other in the novel Niketche: A Story of Polygamy, by Paulina Chiziane, considering both the construction of female characters and the author’s position within the Mozambican literary field. Its objective is to investigate how the novel represents female experience shaped by processes of subalternization and how this representation relates to Simone de Beauvoir’s notion of alterity, according to which woman is socially constructed as the Other in relation to the male subject. The study adopts a qualitative bibliographic approach, grounded in theoretical discussions on gender, alterity, and subalternity, especially drawing on Beauvoir, Gayatri Spivak, and studies on female authorship. The analysis shows that the novel constructs multiple levels of alterity by presenting female characters marked by silence, dependence, and structural inequality, while also revealing Paulina Chiziane’s displaced position within the literary system. The results indicate that the work not only denounces the condition of Mozambican women but also challenges the boundaries between fiction, orality, and authorship. It concludes that Niketche problematizes woman as the Other both in narrative terms and within the literary field.