Bridling

by Nadia Davids

Winner of the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing: Bridling, published in The Georgia Review in 2023.

Award winning author Chika Unigwe (Chair of Judges) said: “Bridling is an impressive achievement, a triumph of language, storytelling and risk-taking while maintaining a tightly controlled narrative about women who rebel".

18 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[KenyanBibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A bit of theatre. A bit of museum. A bit of discomfit for everyone involved.'

I don't usually post about individual short stories but when you read a masterful piece that fuses theatre and gallery, an exception had to be made! Narrated by an unnamed young actress, Bridling follows her involvement in an experimental production directed by a charismatic man, where an all-female cast recreates neoclassical artworks by men, "and men only", depicting women. These artworks reduce women to objects of either suffering or spectacle, their agency stripped by the male gaze. Davids exposes how Western art has historically framed women as passive, punished, or ornamental, perpetuating narratives that constrain rather than liberate.The female cast is tasked with embodying these images, forcing them to confront the violence and erasure embedded in such representations.

The director’s rhetoric, promising “an excavation of historical agency... a Morse code.. a way for us to time travel safely,” cloaks his control in feminist ideals. Yet, his claim that “everything that so desperately needs to be said hinges on your absolute silence” exposes his veneer. He replicates the very oppression he claims to dismantle, erasing the actresses voices to serve his art, blurring the line between creative exploration and exploitation. Davids captures this dynamic through the narrator’s visceral discomfort and the physical toll of wearing the bridle, which symbolizes both historical and present-day silencing. Davids questions whether art that demands women’s discomfort can ever be liberating, especially when it recreates works like The Rape of Persephone that glorify harm, revealing a cycle where women’s pain is mined for art’s sake, from neoclassical paintings to modern stages.

By embodying and internalizing the pain of the violated women the narrator is potraying, she develops an intimate connection with them. She sees them lurking “behind the dressing-room door” and ready to confront the director “if he asks for one more thing.” The director is oblivious to the real power in the room—not his "artistic" vision - but the collective force of women, past and present, united through shared pain, crescendoing in the eruptipn of glorious, unadulterated female rage that has been centuries in the making.

There's often a tendency, whether due to market expectations or internalized pressures, for African authors to focus on stories rooted in African settings, cultures, postcolonial themes etc. This limits the scope of what African writers are “allowed” to explore, equating authenticity to localized narratives. Meanwhile, American and European authors frequently write about the Global South, often with less scrutiny, despite questions of authority or perspective. Davids breaks this mold brilliantly in Bridling by crafting a story that critiques Western art without anchoring itself in an explicitly African context. Davids sidesteps the expectation that African literature must always reflect “Africa” explicitly, freeing her to explore a theatre troupe’s struggle anywhere. Craft aside, which this story had plenty of, it's liberating to see an African author claim that narrative freedom, especially when contrasted with how Western authors often face fewer constraints on their subject matter. It’s a testament to African literature’s potential to speak globally, dismantling Western narratives with unapologetic brilliance.

[Sinayo ᯓ★ Maneli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do women ever own their stories. Is one of the existential questions ask through out this short story. The director aims to create an “excavation of historical agency” and connection with “ghost-women.” The theatre piece involves a company of twelve women performers who create living tableaus of artwork by men that depict women. It details the intensive rehearsal process characterised by the director’s unconventional methods that are both physically and emotionally demanding for the actors. The act of re-enactment is presented as a way to access and embody the experience of these women from the past but the director’s vision( a male) restricts the female performers of their agency in retelling the story. Almost like how women in art are portrayed historically. The director steadfast in his vision, emphasising the importance of silence, stillness, and the audience’s interaction with the performers. Parallels the objectification and often silent portrayal of women in art, noting how none of the painted women are smiling. For the play’s central concept to be confront and “return the male gaze” by staging artworks created by men depicts women contradicts its message by the director lack of consideration of twelve women experience and interpretation in order to fulfil his “vision.” The “art women” represent the collective history and silenced voices of women in art, and their eventual “testimony” through Grace rebellion against the director’s vision signifies a reclaiming of their narratives.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Bridling' is a short story narrated by an actress who is part of an all-female theater cast representing artworks that depict women. All of the artworks were created by men, and the whole thing is directed by a man. There is nothing else you need to know. A wonderful short story that won the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing

[Anetq · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story is the winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing 2024.
It's the story of a director putting up images of woman made by men as an interactive play. But the women do not let themselves confine to their male-defined roles-

[Carolien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner of the 2024 Caine Prize for Fiction: https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...

A story about women who rebel and refuse to confine themselves to the roles determined by men.

[Lex Ax · Rating 5 out of 5]

sensational

[Mariana Valdata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just loved it. It's poetic prose, conveying sensory and emotional immersion.