GENDERED REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN WAR LITERATURE: A STUDY OF AKACHI EZEIGBO’S ROSES AND BULLETS AND FESTUS IYAYI’S HEROES

This paper explores the ways in which women’s lives are altered in times of war as presented in fictional literature and it examines the depictions of women of the Nigerian Civil War. The aim is to identify how situations of conflict affect the unwritten ‘rules’ of gender roles and behavior in a typical patriarchal African society, drawing from the work of Carl Jung, who posited the idea of archetypes as fragments of the collective unconscious which represents the collective expectations of society. Primary data is sourced from the selected texts; Akachi Ezeigbo’s Roses and Bullets and Festus Iyayi’s Heroes while library and internet sources provided reference information. Findings reveal that despite the disruptive effects of war on social structures and norms, the restrictions of gender prescriptions are still upheld more ardently, by women against fellow women. The research is expected to contribute to existing studies on gender as an instrument of socialization and conditioning in conflict situations