Redefining the African woman in contemporary African literature : a study of Adichie's Purple hibiscus, Half of a yellow sun, and Americanah

MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2017This dissertation examines the redefinition of the African woman in the three novels of the Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, namely Purple hibiscus (2004), Half of a yellow sun (2006) and Americanah (2013). This involves the interrogation of Adichie’s representation of female characters, African female experiences, and issues of feminist concern in her fictional oeuvre. The aims of this dissertation were to analyse the representation of the female characters in the novels as feminist models, to explore Adichie’s portrayal of African female experiences and thematic issues of feminine concern, and finally to examine Adichie’s commitment to the African feminist ideological principles of gender balance, complementarity, and inclusivity. To achieve these aims, the research utilises African feminism as a theoretical framework. Through a close reading and in-depth analysis of the texts, the study examines the representation of female characters in Adichie’s novels. It further explores the textual strategies employed by Adichie to unravel and challenge patriarchal imbalances in her literary oeuvre. Therefore, different feminist thematic concerns in the novels such as patriarchy and sexist attitudes towards women, the suppression of female sexuality, and violence against women, including sexual violation and domestic violence, son preference syndrome, and the valorisation of marriage and motherhood come into focus. My analyses of Adichie’s novels affirm the vital role she has played so far and continues to play in redefining and reasserting the identity of African women. It also evinces her enunciation of their quest for agency and power, while emphasising the struggles women in Africa and the diaspora continuously face due to the persistence of patriarchal cultures on the continent. Indisputably, Adichie’s fiction reveals the importance of literary creativity as a tool for arousing feminist consciousness and instigating change in gender relations. This study establishes that negative masculinity, which refers to the cultural construct of manhood characterised by the extolling of maschismo affects both genders. Patriarchal social constructs stifle both men and women. Therefore, both genders must coalesce in the spirit of complementarity to achieve change in gender relations. Furthermore, it reveals that Adichie’s literary oeuvre re-envisions the future of African women by proposing female education, financial independence, and female bonding as the ways through which African women can successfully confront and negotiate the issues of female subjectivity, stereotyping, and empowerment. Like most contemporary female writers, Adichie’s inventions of the African female identity transcends societal perceptions of what a woman should and should not be. By doing so, she redefines the image of the contemporary African woman and renegotiates the patriarchal spaces she is accorded in African literature. Therefore, this dissertation proffers a fresh insight into the African feminist discourse as it transcends not just Adichie’s positive representation and redefinition of the African female identity, but also engages in a more complex and explicit analysis of feminist issues. The treatment of these feminist issues underscores the necessity for positive transformation of women’s status in African literature and a redefinition of what it means to be an African woman in the fast-paced socio-cultural and political context of the twenty-first century. Consequently, this dissertation concludes that through her authorial excellence and her commitment to constructing narratives that reflect the ambiguities, interests, anxieties, ambivalences, and gritty realities of not only African women but of women all over the world, Adichie epitomises major elements at the forefront of African feminist writing leading to a renewed examination of our very definition of feminismMaster