Is there nowhere else where we can meet? The postcolonial woman writer and political fiction

The focus of this dissertation is the post-colonial woman who is seen as a plurality or as part of a continuum, in which she moves in various positions, depending on what ideology is imposed on her. The novels of Nadine Gordimer, Nayantara Sahgal and Buchi Emecheta are all concerned with the post-colonial woman, as well as with fragmentation, marginality, displacement and dialogic discourse; with fracture or fission in their narratives; and with female exploitation. Yet Gordimer\u27s main concern is with racial conflicts, Sahgal\u27s with religious strife, and Emecheta\u27s with gender problems. Primarily, all three novelists represent repressed or subaltern figures as presences that are revealed through interactions between various voices, gaps in dominant discourse, overlay, and constant displacement. As regards the alienated elite, the three novelists represent her as an isolated figure who assimilates through sex or social awareness or writing, but who is only partially integrated with patriarchal society. The three novelists also choose several different ways in which to describe how alternate worlds are visualized by post-colonial women. In general, they appear as quests for alternate identities within the genre of family romances, and are accompanied by visions involving a revised sense of identity. Despite these visions, the alternate worlds are largely unachievable. Also, all three novelists examine the actual nature of the new world created by revolution. It is described as a world in crisis in which women become boundary markers of social change. However, all three novelists fail to problematize the role of class in creating each crisis. In conclusion, the post-colonial woman appears to be an ambivalent figure because her position in society is constantly displaced, her voice is always resisting imperial hegemony and her discourse constantly shifts and evolves. She is at once elite and powerless, at once subversive and exploitative