Interrogating Gender Injustices in Selected Nigerian Fictions | ||
| Miṣriqiyā | ||
| Article 3, Volume 4, Issue 2, October 2024, Pages 17-47 PDF (417.64 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/misj.2024.308491.1063 | ||
| Author | ||
| Grace Itoro Ibanga* | ||
| Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This Paper explores gender dichotomies in fiction and real life through gender politics, patriarchy, and irony, focusing on Abi Dare’s The Girl with the Louding Voice (2020) and Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017). The study examines how male hegemony perpetuates cultural discrimination against women in the above named texts, using qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate that women are crucial to the family and society, and their empowerment through education is essential for personal autonomy, free from adult interference. The study highlights that patriarchy enforces social injustices against women through forced marriage and childbearing. Both authors call for institutional integrity to support women's rights and promote a healthy society. Additionally, the study reveals that some influential women contribute to the oppression of other women, causing unnecessary sufferings. It concludes with recommendations for addressing these issues: female children should not be coerced into marriage without economic empowerment; Nigerian culture should eliminate gender-based inequalities; and effective mentorship should be provided to guide and liberate young women from exploitation and servitude. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Gender injustices; Dear Ijeawele; The Girl with the Louding Voice; female child; irony | ||
| Full Text | ||
|
Grace Itoro Ibanga PhD teaches Gender Studies and Feminist Aesthetics; The English Novel Tradition: From the Eighteenth till date; The African Literature; Modern British Poetry, and other Literature related courses, in the Department of English in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. She completed her doctoral research on “Female Archetypes in the fiction of Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo within the context of Africa’s Patriarchy” in 2019 in her Department. Her research areas incorporate all the forms of African Literature, especially fiction. She has published quality researches in both Local and International Academic Journals of high reputation. | ||
| References | ||
|
Achebe, C. (1964). Arrow of God. London: Heinemann. Adichie, C. N. (2017). Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Lagos: Kachifo Limited. Adimora-Ezeigbo, A. (1992). Rhythms of life. London: Karnak House. Aidoo, A. A. (1970). Anowa. London: Longman Group Ltd. Aristotle (1920). Poetics on the Art of Poetry. I. Bywater (Ed.), Oxford: Charendon Press. Ba, M. (1981). So Long a Letter (M. Bode-Thomas, Trans.). Port Harcourt: Heinemann Educational Publishers. Chesaina, C. C. (2013). Gender Dimensions in East African Women’s Creative Literature. In C. F. Ojukwu (Ed), Critical Issues in African Literatures: Twenty-first Century and Beyond (pp. 213-239). Port Harcourt: Port Harcourt University Press. Cixious, H. (1997). Sorties Out and Out: Attack/Ways Out/Forays. In C. Belsey & J. Moore (Eds), The Feminist Reader (2nd ed., pp. 91-103). Malden Mass: Blackwell. Dare, A. (2020). The Girl with The Louding Voice. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. de Beaviour, S. (1949). The Second Sex (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). New York: Knopf. Diala-Dgamba, B. (2013). Canons of Victimization and Non-Conformism in Naraddin Farah’s Blood in The Sun Trilogy. In C. F. Ojukwu (Ed.), Critical Issues in African Literatures: Twenty-First Century and Beyond (pp.241-261). Port Harcourt: Port Harcourt University Press. Donovan, J. (1975). Afterword Critical Re-vision in Feminist Literary Criticism, Exploration in Theory. J. Donovan (Ed), Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. El Saadawi, N. (1983). Woman at Point Zero. London: Zed Press. Emecheta, B. (2000). The New Tribe. Essex: Heinemann. Freud, S. (1970). Introducing Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (J. Riviera, Trans.). London: Heron Books. Frye, N., Sheriden, B. & George, P. (1985). The Harper Handbook to Literature. New York: Harper and Row Publishers. Gideon, L. A, Nkeiruka, E. G. & Fatimah, S. U. (2022). Antithesis of Masculinity in the Works of Chinua Achebe: The Study of Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. African Journal of Humanities and Contemporary Education Research, volume 3 (2, March), 77-85. www.afropolitanjournals.com Hoggart, R. (1957). The Use of Literacy. London: Chatto & Windus. Hole, J. (1973). “Politics of the Ego: A Manifesto for Radical Feminists” in Radical Feminism. A. Koedt, E. Levine & A. Rapone (Eds). New York: Quadrangle Books, 378-381. Holman, H. C. & William, H. (1986). A Handbook to Literature. 5th Ed. New York: Macmillan. Irigaray, L. (1985). This Sex Which Is Not One (C. Porter. Irhaca, Trans.). N.Y: Cornell University Press. Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. L. S. Roudies (Ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. Llewellyn-Jones, D. (1998). Everywoman: A gynecological guide for life. London: Penguin Books. Mappes, T. A. and Zembarty, J. S. (1977). Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. New York: McGraw Hill. Macionis, J. J. (2005). Sociology. Tenth Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Parson Prentice Hall Mezu, R. U. (1994). Women in Chains: Abandonment in Love Relationships in the Fiction of Selected West African Writers. Owerri: Black Academy. Micere, G. M. (2012). ‘The Story of Our Life’ unpublished Lecture delivered at the University of Nairobi, 17th April. Millet, K. (2000). Sexual Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois. Milner, A. (1994). Contemporary Cultural Theory. London: University College. Moi, T. (1985). Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. New York: Methuen. Muecke, D. C. (1969). The Compass of Irony. London: Methuen. Mugo, M. (1976). Dr. Micere Mugo, Kenya’s Outspoken Intellectual and Academic Critic Talks to Nancy Owano. African Woman, volume 6 (September/October), 14-15. Nash, C. (2020). Patriarchy. In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.). https://doc.org/w.1016/8978-0-08.102295-5.10206.9. Nnaemeka, O. (2007). Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy and Epistemology. In T. Olaniyan & A. Quayson (Eds.), African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory (pp. 570-577). Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Nnolim, C. E. (2005). Pessimism as Dialectic: The Form of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Yenagoa: Treasure Communications Resources Limited. Nwapa, F. (1964). Efuru. London: Heinemann. Quayson, A. (2007). Feminism, Postcolonialism and the Contradictory orders of Modernity. In T. Olaniyan & A. Quayson (Eds.), African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory (pp. 585-591). Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Rich, A. (1976). Of Woman Born Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton. Sanday, P. R. (2009.) Male Dominance. In R. Kitchin and N. Thrift (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 9143-9147). Ref. Work, Maynaoth: National University of Ireland. Selden, R. (1988). The Theory of Criticism from Plato to the Present: A Reader. London: Longman. Showalter, E. (1978). A Literature of their Own British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. London: Virago. Spivak, G. C. (1990). The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies and Dialogues. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Strid, S. & Jeff, H. (2022). Structural Dimensions. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflicts, volume 3, 319-327. https://doc.org/10.1016/8978-0-12-820195-4.00108-4. Sutherland, E. T. (1967). Edufa. Essex: Longman Group Ltd. Walker, A. (1983). In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. New York: Harcourt Brace (pp. 231-243). Wollstonecraft, M. (2006). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: Penguin Books. | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 198 PDF Download: 143 |
||
