Date on Honors Thesis

Spring 5-2024

Major

English/Literature

Minor

Creative Writing

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Julie Cyzewski, Advisor

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Timothy Johns, Committee Member

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Danielle Nielsen, Committee Member

Abstract/Description

Though about two decades separate their ascents to global renown, Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie represent two figureheads of the women’s literary tradition in Nigeria. While Adichie has embraced the “feminist” label to describe her work, Emecheta has proven more reluctant, divulging issues with the Western variety of the movement—namely, its deconstruction of the family. Nevertheless, Emecheta and Adichie engage with issues such as maternity, familial turmoil, and political unrest in the contexts of colonial and postcolonial Nigeria, respectively. In doing so, both writers demonstrate the unique manifestations of patriarchy brought about by colonial rule. In Emecheta’s novel The Joys of Motherhood and Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, each writer utilizes a similar approach to depicting the female consciousness: Both of the protagonists’ perspectives never diverge completely from the existing patriarchal structures. Nnu Ego finds herself shackled to the responsibility of raising children in her husband’s absence, while young Kambili largely remains tethered to her abusive father’s expectations. Intriguingly, then, Emecheta and Adichie display similarities in their use of the “inadequate” feminist heroine despite avowing distinct positions regarding their alignments with feminist theory. In Adichie’s story “The Headstrong Historian,” however, the main characters resist colonial attempts at historical erasure—distinguishing themselves as obstinate protagonists who prove more potent as feminist heroines than Nnu Ego or Kambili. In this story, Adichie’s approach to the female protagonist breaks from Emecheta’s approach in a way Purple Hibiscus does not. Similarly, Akwaeke Emezi’s novel Freshwater subverts predecessor Adichie’s essentialist approach to gender issues, with ogbanje protagonist Ada prompting contemplation of how societies construct gendered identities. Using African feminist theory and Emecheta, Adichie, and Emezi as “case studies,” I argue that the goals of Nigerian literature have shifted over the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries from female representation to liberation and examine how approaches to representing liberation have become increasingly philosophical and abstract.

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