PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN WOLAYTA FOLKTALES: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study aims at examining the psychological portrayal of women in Wolayta folktales, a significant but under-studied component of Ethiopian oral literature. This study addresses a critical gap in recent scholarship, which has scantly explored how traditional narratives in this given cultural context shape and depict the psychological lives of women. For this study, a qualitative approach informed by feminist theory is used. To this end, six folktales are drawn from a larger corpus of 30 folktales collected through interviews and focus group discussions from fieldwork and from document archives. The findings show a recurrent trend of psychological marginalization, with women portrayed as lacking critical thinking, being exceedingly emotional, and   submissive to male authority. Finally, the study shows that women have been the victims of traditions that harass, demotivate, undermine, or relegate them in different aspects of life. And these pychological coercions in the narrattives still continue to impact the lives of women in the area.