ABSTRACT
This project is on the
Womanist Consciousness in
Ezeigbo’s The Last Strong Ones and
Alakli’s The Stillborn. It is geared
towards reminding woman of the need to claim their true place in a society
dominated by men.
Chapter one deals with the general introduction and
background of the study.
Chapter two deals with scholars’ views on the subject
under consideration.
Chapter three & four deal with the Womanist
Consciousness in Ezeigbo’s The Last of
the Strong Ones and Alkali’s The Stillborn.
Chapter five is the general conclusion of the work.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………………i
CERTIFICATION………………………………………………………….ii
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………….iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………….v
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………vi
CHAPTER ONE
A GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
1.3 BACKGRUOND TO THE STUDY
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.5 STATEMENT OF THE
RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.6 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 FEMINISM
2.3 WOMANIST IDEOLOGY AND
FICTION OF EZEIGBO AND
ALKALI.
2.4 EZEIGBO AND HER PUBLIC
2.5 ALKALI AND HER PUBLIC
2.6 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER THREE
THE LAST OF THE STRONG ONES: AN ANALYSIS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 A BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT
OF THE AUTHOR
3.3 THE SYNOPSIS OF THE
NOVEL
3.4 WOMANIST CONSCIOUSNESS
IN THE NOVEL
3.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FOUR
THE STILLBORN: AN ANALYSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 A BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT
OF THE AUTHOR
4.3 THE SYNOPSIS OF THE
NOVEL
4.4 THE STILL BORN: A
TEXTUAL EXPLANATION
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION.
A SUMMARY OF THE TITLE
BIBLOGRAPHY
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The
critical power is lower rank than the creative True, but in assenting to this
proposition one or two things are to be kept in mind. It is undeniable that the
exercise of a creative power, that of a free creative activist is the true function of man, it is
proved to be so by man’s finding in it his true happiness. But it is
undeniable, also that men may have the sense of exercising this free creative
activity in other ways than in producing great works of literature or art, if
it were not so all but a very few men would be shut out from the true happiness
of all men, they many have it in well- doing. Then may have it in learning;
they may have it eve in criticizing.
-
Mathew Arnold, the function of
criticizing
The
question is, apart from being an a Sademic
constrain, what could make a young girl of my age who is being driven by
the unpleasant social and economic situation of her society to an almost
uncontrollable search of livelihood go
into a tedious and time consuming research or exploration? The eternal answer
to this question is motivation. A student must be motivated by a fact or what
looks like a fact to write. A student must be motivated by what bothers her. A
student must be motivated by some
sense of inquisitiveness. A student must be motivated.
Part
from being a prerequisite to acquire my
degree of bachelor of Arts, this project is also a product of a sense of
pedagogical frustration that I suspect many may share.
In
the fictions of female writers in Nigeria Womanist consciousness has become a
dominant force. Even now it has been considered as an integral part of the
fiction of this part of the world and it plays an increasingly visible role in
our society as we have a number of Non Governmental organization (N.G.O)
purposely founded to promo be womanhood or may be women’s relevance.
Obviously,
the content of the subjects of this piece is clear. It a literary study of a
social issues that seems to be driving almost every woman, her status not
withstanding, to a state of parricidal consciousness. Patriarchal
consciousness, in this context, we simply means that woman are becoming too
conscious of self that they assume the
status of man, that they begin to patriarchal in their thought, in the
attitude, in their feeling, and even in their act.
With unbelievable
dexterity she grasped the trunk of the free and began to climb…….. We ran
forward, pleading with her and begging her to come down.
……Suddenly Ejimnaka
hugged forward, arming to grasp the boy’s leg and pull him down. She missed
………Ejimanaka lost her balance and fell off, crashing to ground. (page 170)
one
may want to ask: does requiring strength naturally qualify a woman a man? What is womanist consciousness is it when
women are conscious of their relevance in the society? Is it when are not what
they think they are or when are what they think they are not? What is womanist consciousness? Is it the
priority the society offers the women or self recognition of woman.
The
questions need answers, yet the concept of woman consciousness the should provide the answers still remain elusive even
to the most critical minds. Fiction writers like the ones that are going to be
studied in this work who have attempted defining it appear to
have rather complicated it as they consciously or unconsciously bring into
question the issues of demostic responsibility the cultural right and duties of women the
African view of morality and the cultural (African0 definition of woman.
Critics,
however, have often engaged themselves with definitions, classifications,
analysis and evaluation of such works in order to establish, on the basis of
general principles, of a coherent set o terms, distinctions and categories
applicable to the consideration and interpretation of such works, as well as
the criteria by which they are to be
evaluated in order to elucidate the complexities embedded in the concept. Hence
we agree that the writing of this project is the product of a sense of
pedagogical frustration that many may share, for the question remains. With
these complexity what really is Womanist consciousness?
1.2 CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION:
One
thing is common to all revolutionalists self-consciousness. This is the basis
of his zeal and excitement to revolt against any order that seems or attempt to
ulter what she/he sees of her/ himself
that.
Perhaps
one should be a bit elaborate here. By self-consciousness, in this context, we mean
i.
Knowing who you are and who you are not.
ii.
Choosing who you want to be and
rejecting who you do not want to be.
This
is the basis or the fundamental of every revolutionary writer like the two
authors under study: they have seen who they are and who they are not. Thus
they choose who they want to be by investigating this consciousness- - a
dominant force in the lives of their characters.
A
Womanist consciousness writer in this part of the world is a product of the
identity of women’s experiences and interests because usually it is almost
impossible to conceive of her art that could be detached from a shared
experience of oppression. And in this regard, she sets a standard for every
woman a patriarchal standard.
This
point of this argument is clear Womanist consciousness is just patriarchy
redefined. In other words, every woman in her society to consider herself
recovering “patriarchal woman” patriarchal woman in this context means, a woman
who has internalized the norms and valves of patriarchy, which can be defined,
in shorts, as any culture, privileges men by promoting traditional gender
roles. Traditional gender roles cast. Men as rational, strong, protective and
decisive; they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and
submissive.
These
gender roles have been employed very successfully to justify such in equities
as women are excluded from equal access to leadership and decision- making
positions paying men higher wages than women for doing the same job (if women
are equally able to get the job), and convincing them that they are not fit for
careers in such a real as engineering.
Patriarchy
is thus, by definition, sexist, which means it promotes the belief that
women are innately inferior to men.
This belief is the in born inferiority
of woman, according to Lois Tyson, is called “biological essentialism’ as it is
based on biological differences between the sexes that are considered part of
our unchanging essence as men and women”. She speaks:
A striking illustration
is the word hysteria, which derives
froms the Greek word for womb (Hytera0
and refers to psychological disorders deemed peculiar to women and characterized by over emotional,
extremely irrational behaviour as a concept in feminism.
Womanist consciousness does not deny the “biological
difference” between men and women; but it does not agree that such differences
as physical size, shape and body chemistry make men naturally superior to
women; for example more intelligent more logical more courageous, or better
leaders.
In the end, Oluada
agreed to participate more intensely and vigorously in Obufo and to continue to
represent the woman actively, in the
political body- Ezeigbo page 10.
Cheri
Register in recognition of the political nature of female writings, agrees that
there is an energy and enthusiasm in such writings, an eagerness to raise
issues and a health disregarded for objective judgments. To her a writer whose
fundamental of writing is Womanist
consciousness should have passion for a highly dogmatic form of criticism,
conched in authoritarian language. Thus she asserts that womanist consciousness
writing should ‘express female experience authentically”.
Wendy
Martin suggest that, for any work to be classified as Womanist consciousness
literature, it must provide role models who are self- actualizing, whose
identities are not dependent on men. However, register stresses that characters
should not be idealized beyond plausibility because ‘concrete political issues”
have a place in Womanist consciousness approved literature and that place “must
be consistent with the demands for authenticity and subjectivity’ she adds.
This
argument is an indication that a crucial concept in Womanist consciousness is
the belief in authenticity and in the revaluation of a true female
identity.
Womanist
consciousness investigating the patriarchal attribute women naturally acquire,
seeks to distinguish between the word sex, which refers to the to the biological constitution as female or
male, and the word gender which refers to the cultural programming as famine or
masculine, which are categories created by society rather than by nature.
The
belief that men are superior to women has been used, Womanist consciousness
writers have observed, to justify and maintain the male dominance and monopoly
of positions of economic, political and social power in other words, to keep
women powerless by denying them the educational and occupational means of acquiring
economic, political and social power. That is, the inferior position long
occupied by women in patriarchal society has been culturally, not biologically,
produce for example “it is a patriarchal
assumption rather than a fact, that more woman than men suffer from hysteria”
But because it has been defined as a female problem, hysterical behaviour in
men will not be diagnosed as such. Instead, it will be ignore or given another,
less damaging name such as “shortness of temper”.
Womanist
consciousness will better be understood when discussing feminism. The reason is
that, this concept is a facet of feminism which focuses attention to the
requisition or revelation of woman true and authentic identity that are
patriarchal in nature. In other words, it capture the very essence of woman
exploits in a society which attaches more significance to men.
More
shall be said on the concept when we do the textual analysis of both texts that are being used for this study.
1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY:
This
project is born out of a desire to learn about the concept of womanist from two author- Mothers or women
who have been motivated by some basic facts in their societies to write in
defense of women.
As
it is universally accepted, literature is a product of the society. And it
strives to achieve the ideal in all human conditions. To achieve this height,
it uses a critical lens to examine situations which exists in a society with a
view to drawing attention to deficiencies and lapses in human endeavours.
Consequently,
there may be need to dwell essentially upon both formal and extended
definitions of Womanist consciousness so
as to have a direct, immediate and comprehensive grasp of the concept.
By
formal/definitions, we mean brief and explanation(s) of the concept as a lexical item, which
follows a standard three- parts structure. First, it presents the term to be
defined, then the general class it is a part of and finally the qualifies that
differentiate it to initiate our exploration, while extended definitions which,
though included these essentials but do not follow a set pattern, adapt
whatever techniques best suit the terms being defined and the writing situation
will be employed to capture the very essence of the term under survey. Thus,
techniques such as:
i.
Exemplification
ii.
Description
iii.
Comparison and contrast
iv.
Process and
v.
Classification
Will
be applied as a each is very instrumental in this enquiry as it helps define,
by emphasizing some central characteristics, this concept of Womanist
consciousness, a very strong social/ fact.
As
earlier stated, a fiction writer and her material are produced by the society,
and therefore necessarily contain information about that very society. The fiction
writers is the teacher of the people, for fiction particularly African
fictions, gives pattern for behavior, and is thus not only a source of
information but also normative force in the society.
(Fiction), like
pictorial art is also apparently universal and it is a sociological truism that
what is found. Universally must be of some social use.
- Rockwell (1986).
To
know the fiction of a society is to know what sort of stores are produced, and
also, more significantly, to find in this mirror a reliable image of a number
of hard social facts.
To a greater extent
than is generally realized, the lesson of socialization….. are through by
presenting a series of fictional actions and the consequences.
The inference, which
may never have been formulated but is justified empirically by the universal
use of the method, is that a fictional model is an effective guide to action,
whether through limitation or avoidance.
-
Rockwell (1986).
The
didactic utility of the fiction of initial socialization is a they to the
valves of the society which produces it. It is intended to influence behaviour
to conform to the norms and this tells us what the norms are. Fiction can give
two types of information about a society. First its specific information about
whether a social constitution or custom exists or exited in the society which
produces the fiction, the second, and more important, is the information about
valves, norms and exceptions in society which may be inferred from attitude of
the characters in the fiction. To
achieve this Eghagha, (2003: 1 and 2) Says, it uses a critical lens to examine
situations which are in the society with a view to correcting the vices and
encouraging the virtues since “Society itself is an agglomeration of the hopes
and aspirations of the people” Osofisan subscribes to this thinking when he
says:
Art, born of society,
comments back on that social matrix, and by commentary I am implying here both
the possibility of consolidation and erosion
of reaffirmation as well as contradiction. Sooner or later therefore it
must collide or collude with authority, whether of state or shrine, or pulpit
or classroom. Everywhere, whether in the close intimary of domestic life, or the expansive space of
social being, no hegemony is sacrosanct to the probing impatience of art.
Commentaries
are not always positive. In the process of serving as a mirror, fiction beings
out the unsavoury with a view to correcting them. It is against this background
this research work seeks to investigate woman consciousness from the
perspectives of Ezeigbo and Alkali.
1. 4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
Since this
essay seeks to examine how the African society exists to keep women and men in
traditional gender roles and thereby maintain male dominance, it has as its
objectives the following:
i.
Highlight and explain the concept of
Womanist consciousness.
ii.
Explore the intricacies and complexities
of Womanist consciousness.
iii.
Undertake on in-depth analysis of Womanist consciousness in the selected
works under study to justify the point that fiction is a strong medium to
address woman marginalization.
iv.
Establish the influence of revolt in
Nigerian fiction.
v.
Justify
woman’s perception of patriarchal dominance as a societal distress.
vi.
Demonstrate how Womanist consciousness can
encourage women liberation.
1.5 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH
PROBLEM:
Since
Womanist consciousness has been seen as an attempt by female writers to acknowledge
and promote the patriarchal relevance and attributes of women, it becomes a
difficult task to defend this concepts in
a society that both male and female plays high valves on culture.
This
is an academic research that also demands the conception or perception of the
essayist. And as an essayist a female essayist who sees what is happening in
the present political arena of her country. I initially though I would be
handicapped by the unusual conducts of some women in political arena. However,
after a deep knowledge of Womanist consciousness, one feels relieved as
Womanist consciousness, one feels relieved as Womanist consciousness is being
defined as patriarchy re-defined.
This
suggests that, women have been polluted by the attributes of men. Thus they
become corrupt as men.
Giving
the above a second though a Womanist consciousness writer may be confronted
with dilemma of representing the true picture of women or being ambivalent
about the whole thing. By being ambivalent, we simply mean, presenting women as
they are not concentrating entirely on
the positive or the negative aspects of them.
In
this regarded the problems is, can one
accurately represent woman employing the concept of Womanist consciousness without being brased or
subjective?
1. 6 CONCLUSION
Womanist
consciousness, unlike feminism is not to oppose patriarchal valves; rather it
is to acknowledge these valves in women. Thus studying the two texts that have been
carefully selected, this essay intends
to consider these attributes from the perspectives of the two authors.
This
essay also seeks to relate whatever facts that would be gathered to the present
day Nigeria
in order to ask whether Womanist consciousness is still relevant. It must be
noted that the settings of the two texts are different from the present
sitting. In other words, Nigeria
has matured politically, culturally, academically, economically and psychologically.
After all, the authors under study are now lectures defining the tenants of
their tradition. And one of them has even been elevated to the post of the
head of department in a department
dominated by male lecturers.
This
informs the reason critics see Womanist consciousness as a concept in feminism,
but taking an unusual stand in feminisms. This stand is, perhaps, to elevate or
eulogize women by investigating their patriarchal attributes, and see who they
have liberated the patriarchal society.
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