Gender differences and liberation of female subjects discourse:

the case study of americanah novel

Autores

  • Hasti Soltani
  • Ali salami Salami

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14571/brajets.v16.n3.706-717

Palavras-chave:

Gendered discourse, Gender Differences, Female Identity, Social Factors, Cultural Forces

Resumo

This study aims to investigate Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah novel based on Irigarayian theory and rejection of gender difference. The entire novel deals with voice of women who cannot be heard. Their voices are mostly silenced by society in which they live due to their ethnicities and social status. Ifemelu is main character of the novel whose identity is directly under the influence of culture and ethnicity in different contexts. Irigarayian analysis is used to show the prevalence of the male sex and the notion of motherhood, believing that the female identity is characterized by the role that mothers play throughout the historical discourse, which emphasize that female have been associated with nature and negligence in contrast with the male who are associated with discourse, culture and subjectivity. Irigaray’s claims regarding female identity was rejected. The female characters in the narrative, like men, are linked with culture and discourse than with neglect and nature. Each of these female characters plays an important cultural function in refuting the Irigarayian notion. Paper argues existence of sexual difference between male and female characters reproduces gendered discourses to the disadvantage of women, whereby status quo are maintained and interests of powerful groups are served.

Referências

Allouene, I. and Samah A.. (2020). “Nigerian Female Characters: Should They All be Feminists? In Americanah (2013) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”. Larbi Ben M'hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi.

Anghel, A. (2020). “On the impact of migration, 'Blackness' and gender on a young woman's identity construction in the United States - Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”. Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres, Université catholique de Louvain.

Anghel, A., & Arblaster, P. (2021). On the impact of migration,'Blackness' and gender on a young woman's identity construction in the United States-" Americanah", by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Faculté de philosophie.

Appiah, A. (1992). In my father's house: Africa in the philosophy of culture. OUP USA.

Božić, K. (2020). “Feminist Pedagogy in the Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”. J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek.

Feldner, M. (2019). “Return Migration in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.” Narrating the New African Diaspora, Kindle ed., In M. Feldner and P. Macmillan (Eds.), 3823-4237.

Francisco, D. (2020). “Being Black: Race, Hair Politics, Love and Diasporic Identities in Americanah”. Florianópolis.

Hooks, B. (1981). Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. London: Pluto Press.

Irigaray, L. (1985). This Sex Which is Not One, (C. Porter and C. Burke, Trans). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Jamalpour, H., & Derabi, J. (2022). Cultural memory and neuro-critical reading of Ian McEwan's atonement. Revista de Investigaciones Universidad del Quindío, 34(S2), 436-442.

Jay, M. (1993). Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.

McCoy, S. A. (2017). The “outsider within”: counter-narratives of the “new” African diaspora in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013). Journal of the African Literature Association, 11(3), 279-294.

Ngongkum, E. (2014). Transnationalism, home and identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck. Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 2(1), 77-95.

Nodar, S. R., Salazar, S., Cárdenas, C., & Yllán, V. G. (2022). Testicular Tumor in Children: A Rare Case Report. Current Practice in Medical Science Vol. 9, 25-34.

Nyawira, M. C. (2020). “Immigration And Women’s Self-Identity in Selected Novels of Adichie, Bulawayo and Baingana” Kenyatta University.

Odubajo, A. (2023). An evaluation of shifting gender constructions in selected works of Achebe, Adichie and Emecheta (Doctoral dissertation, North-West University (South Africa)).

Otero, S. L. C. (2021). “An Immigrant Black Woman in America: An Intersectional

Ragland- Sullivan, E. (1992). 'The Symbolic', in Feminism and Psychoanalysis: a Critical Dictionary. In Elizabeth Wright (Ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. 420-423.

Seanego, D., Montle, M. E., & Mogoboya, M. J. (2022). Rethinking African Cultural Portrayal of Women with Reference to Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi’s Selected Novels. International Journal of Social Science Research and Review, 5(11), 492-503.

Temitayo, A. O. (2021). “Transgressive Space and Body in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime”. University of South Africa.

Downloads

Publicado

2023-09-23

Edição

Secção

Novel approaches in education, society and culture development