LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:12 December 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Raising a New Generation of ‘Feminists’: Gender and Social Norms in
Chimamanda Adichie’s Imitations and The Arrangers of Marriage

Sabri Mohammad and Noor Abu Madi


Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimamanda_Ngozi_Adichie

Abstract

This paper focuses on the way females are perceived by the society in our contemporary world in selected short stories of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie in her works portrayed the underestimating social norms that misleadingly specify the gender roles for both males and females in the Nigerian community and the negative consequences the females have to endure in order to keep the intact image desired by such biased societies. Those gender regulations and the role of the social transformational goals will be utilized in unfolding gender problems in the light of Judith Butler’s book Undoing Gender in Adichie’s stories Imitations and The Arrangers of Marriage. Adichie sheds light on the dehumanizing treatment of females in such biased societies and the role of the females themselves in challenging those norms by taking serious steps toward transforming them in a way that serves both genders equally. This study will highlight Adichie’s objective in building a positive society by raising a new generation of feminists either males or females in the light of her nonfictional work We Should All Be Feminists (2014).

Keywords: Feminism; Gender; Social Norms; Butler; Adichie; Imitations; The Arrangers of Marriage; Social Transformation.

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of the 20th and the 21st century, there have been a large number of studies and literary works that depict the status of females in different cultures around the globe. Most of the work done by females, either literary or philosophical, discusses how women are being viewed by either the other gender or by the society in general. They mainly concentrate on their rights, and fight against all dehumanizing ways of treatment that females have undergone and are still going through in their societies.

The status of females and their lives have been highlighted by many works. In particular, females who live in colonial and post-colonial areas of the world are the case of study in many works of literature. Recently, there has been more interest in reflecting and shedding light on the situation of the African female by African female writers than what has been done in the past. One of the rising and most iconic female figures in African literature is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie is a Nigerian female fiction and non-fiction writer a novelist and an essayist who has written many literary pieces Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Americanah (2013), and a collection of short stories.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sabri Mohammad
Master’s Degree in English Literature and Criticism

Noor Abu Madi
Master in English Literature and Criticism
Full-time Lecturer
Language Center The Hashemite University, Zarqa-Jordan
noorb@hu.edu.jo
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