SOURCE: Chetin, Sara. “Myth, Exile, and the Female Condition: Bessie Head's The Collector of Treasures.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 24, no. 1 (1989): 114–37.

In the following essay, Chetin considers Head's concept of exile, feminist perspective, and use of myth in The Collector of Treasures.

Although a little attention has been paid to Bessie Head's novels and the autobiographical elements that have shaped them, almost nothing has been written about how her concept of exile has influenced the way she perceives the art of oral storytelling. Interested in exploring the neglected realm of female experience, Head has recognized the importance myth plays in shaping human consciousness and has used the mythic apparatus in her anthology of short stories, The Collector of Treasures, to interpret women's exiled status and to create a prospective vision of a society where women would no longer suffer “from all the calamities that befall an inferior form of...