Open AccessRETHINKING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN THIRD‐GENERATION NIGERIAN WOMEN’S FICTION
Author(s) -
Shalini Nadaswaran
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
relief
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1873-5045
DOI - 10.18352/relief.652
Subject(s) - girl , subjectivity , personhood , representation (politics) , gender studies , sociology , character (mathematics) , adventure , aesthetics , literature , history , art , psychology , philosophy , developmental psychology , epistemology , art history , political science , politics , law , geometry , mathematics
Third‐generation Nigerian female writers’ representation of gender in local spaces through the rethinking of family relationships reflects a development and change from the first and second generation female writers Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, and Ifeoma Okoye. In a comparative analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2004), Unoma Azuah’s Sky‐High Flames (2005), Sade Adeniran’s Imagine This (2007) and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come (2005), a distinct pattern emerges of the young girl‐child / woman character developing into a matured, strong womanist. As female characters challenge their familial relationships, they develop their sense of personhood, reclaiming wholeness, authority and female subjectivity, changing prescribed roles and structures.