Women’s Perennial Quest in African Writing: Idealistic, Realistic or Chimerical?

• Authors: Opara Chioma
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

When African female writing commenced in 1966, it proffered a vista of female pro-testation of the individuality of woman. The clarion call for a revision and deconstruc-tion of patriarchal values became sonorous and distinct in the politics of gender. Various tools have been employed in this radical political act. Iconoclasm in the bid to destroy the emblems of patriarchy has served as a rude awakening to the dire need for a drastic change of cultural values. In the same vein, utopian devices have opened up a gateway to possibilities of a better world of the evaluation of integrity, probity and development hinged on creativity. There is also a reversal of the hegemonic mode of power where the power process is revaluated and deconstructed. This paper examines the varied thoughts of African female writers and theorists who seem to be entangled in a cultural bind immanent in a measure of ambivalence. It concludes that the female perennial quest for freedom may in point of fact be only chimerical.

Keywords

EN

ambivalence; utopia; cultural values; iconoclasm; chimerical

• Publisher: Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk; Fundacja Filozofia Na Rzecz Dialogu
• Journal: Dialogue and Universalism
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 119-128

Contributors

author

Opara Chioma

• Institute of Foundation Studies, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.