The representation of women in the selected literary works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Buchi Emecheta

• Main Author: Haruna, Alkasim
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: PN Literature (General)
• Online Access: https://etd.uum.edu.my/10220/1/s95455_01.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10220/2/s95455_02.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10220/

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Buchi Emecheta are prominent African feminist writers whose works have been studied extensively. Therefore, the present study aimed at analyzing the power of women in fighting against male oppression under the traditional patriarchal system in Africa as portrayed in the seven selected novels. This research was conducted with three objectives: a) to identify the kinds of treatment women received in traditional patriarchal society in the selected novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Purple Hibiscus, Half of A Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your Neck and Buchi Emecheta in The Bride Price, The Joys of Motherhood, The Slave Girl and Second-class Citizen b) to describe how the women react towards patriarchal power imposed on them as depicted by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun and Buchi Emecheta in The Bride Price and The Joys of Motherhood, and c) to show how the women characters exercise their power in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your Neck and Buchi Emecheta’s novels in The Bride Price, The Joys of Motherhood, The Slave Girl and Second-Class citizen. The theoretical perspectives that framed the study was Postcolonial theory and Feminism. The data were obtained by analyzing the novels using literary analysis and textual analysis. The findings show that the ways the women characters exercised their actions are almost the same in the seven novels. The women characters in Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun exercised their actions by rejecting the traditional patriarchal treatments which led to their freedom. In The Bride Price and The Joys of Motherhood, the women characters also exercised their actions by challenging the traditional patriarchal treatments which led them to become independent women. The patriarchal powers of the male dominance society had contributed to major problems and challenges affecting the lives of most of the African women. The findings have established the need to study Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Buchi Emecheta’s novels from the feminist perspective in relation to women’s subjugation and subjugation. The study has also added to and enriched the existing literature on the representation of women research. Therefore, it is suggested that the Postcolonial theory and feminism is applied to studies on representation of women.