Changing Representations of African Women in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the changing representation of African women - specifically Igbo women- in postcolonial Nigeria through an in depth reading of Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1974) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), since these novels employ female protagonists and significant female characters who represent new African women with higher education in order to fulfil their ideals and ambitions and assert themselves as individuals in terms of protagonists’ questioning and opposing the patriarchal structures and limitations which restrict their lives socio-economically and socio-culturally. In the first chapter of this thesis, Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen is analysed in order to illustrate how Emecheta represents the newly emerging Nigerian women’s identities and their status through Adah, the heroine of the novel. On account of her education Adah is proven to be a representation of Nigerian women who struggle against patriarchal restrictions in order to fulfil her dreams and ideals to assert themselves as individuals owing to her determination and self-confidence. In the second chapter, Chinua Achebe’s representations of African women in Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah are discussed. In Things Fall Apart which takes place in precolonial Nigeria, it is pointed out that although limited, the women characters have some power according to the rules of the society they belong to. Invi Anthills of the Savannah, which is Achebe’s last novel set in postcolonial Nigeria, the heroine, Beatrice and other female characters are capable of existing as individuals in the society and they do not necessarily have to have stereotypical roles as mothers and wives in order to survive on their own. Moreover, they are leaders and decision makers contributing to their society and country. In the conclusion, it is concluded that the representation of African women has changed as reflected in the heroine Adah, Beatrice and other female characters in these novels. Even though African understanding of colonialism and patriarchy leaves a limited space for these women, ironically they can benefit from the opportunities that colonialism has brought to Nigeria: education; thus, it is pointed out that the conventional roles