Autobiography and Deconstruction of female selfhood in Karen Blixen's out of Africa and Elspeth Huxley's The flame trees of Thika

Abstract

The present paper uses deconstruction theory to critique the notion of female 'self-hood' in two autobiographical novels written by two settlers in Kenya: Karen Blixen and Elspeth Huxley. Lejeune’s and Barthes deconstruction theory are applied in the analysis of White settler female writing. The European settler community in Kenya traversed linguistic, religious, cultural, economic and geographical boarders as they tried to construct and re-construct their identity in their new homes. The construction 0/the identity of female ‘selfhood’ by Karen Blixen and Elspeth Huxley in their autobiographical novels Out of Africa (I93 7) and The Flame Trees of Thika ( I 959) respectively blend fact andfiction, lending insight into particular migration histories within specific time periods that contributed to the formation o/'_ female ‘self’ identity . These novels address the ways in which individual identities are changed by their own journeys, their ancestors, and those o/their community. The heroine in Out of Africa, who is actually Blixen, found herself caught between the ideal of European womanhood and that of the brave new world of white settlers in Kenya. The heroine in settler writing emerges with a strong, complex, dynamic, and meaningful female personality which is the product of various journeys across different boundaries.