The Treatment of Patriarchy in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood and Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come
Date
2017-09-26
Authors
Oso, Olusola
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture
Abstract
While studies on the patriarchal order and the
marginalization of women in male-authored African
novels abound, not much has been done to examine
together the works of female novelists of different
generational and ideological orientations. This study
therefore examines the treatment of patriarchy in Buchi
Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and Sefi Atta’s
Everything Good Will Come. The study is grounded on
feminist theory. Feminism is considered appropriate
because it is aimed at empowering women in the society,
and the novels under review expose how women are
oppressed and marginalized in many African societies, and
stress the need for the women to challenge the status quo
with a view to liberating themselves from the oppressive
African men. The research is essentially library-based and
involves textual analysis. The study demonstrates how
female African novelists have responded to the phallic
nature of the African literature by empowering the female
characters in their novels, and unabashedly exposing
the patriarchal proclivity of the African men. The study
shows how the two novelists give a fair representation of
the historical backgrounds of their novels. One recurring
feature of these novels is that the feminist zeal of the
novelists sometimes beclouds their sense of judgement.
The male characters in the novels are unfairly represented
and bestialised. The import of this is that, given the
proliferation of promising African female novelists in our
present generation, there is the need for them to pursue
their feminist goal vigorously but realistically.
Description
The focus of the study is on the treatment of patriarchy in two widely acclaimed, female-authored African novels, Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood and Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come. Patriarchy is a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favour men and withhold opportunities from women.Using feminist theory as framework, the study critically examines various instances of patriarchy in the two selected novels. The study establishes how pervasive and deeply entrenched patriarchy is in the Nigerian society.
Keywords
Feminism , African literature , Patriarchy , Women oppression