This paper employs Foucault’s theory on Discourse, Power, and Knowledge to highlight the powers shaping the Egyptian woman in God Dies by the Nile. The paper also uses the feminist theory in identifying the ways that the Egyptian woman uses to resist the discourse of power in the narrative. The paper, therefore, focuses on the power dynamics in the novel. Thus questions addressed in this paper include: how the discourses of family, society, and religion are generated in the novel; how patriarchy shapes the discourse of power in the narrative, and the subtle means used by women to resist and play out power in the novel. Using a thematic approach, textual analysis, and the novel as a primary source, the paper discusses patriarchal discourse and power politics. Examining a selection of discourses and how they affect the body of the female help in appreciating the effect of patriarchy on women in the novel. The study concludes that discourse alone does not explain the power dynamics in the novel. Silence, rebellion, female bonding, and the creation of paranoia in the men through silent but open resistance to patriarchy are some of the power dynamics played out in the novel by the female gender.
The academic space has witnessed in recent times, a plethora of research works on child soldiering. However, the majority of these works are often viewed from a non-literary perspective. Using textual analysis which is purely qualitative in nature, this paper, from a literary perspective, focused on examining the representation of the child soldier figure in Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation by paying particular attention to the characterization of the child soldier as an individual who transitions from a victim of war to a victimizer. With the help of the trauma theory, the paper discussed and provided an understanding of the physiological factors and reactions that necessitate this transition. Based on Bloom’s concepts of trauma and the general theory of trauma, the paper finds that the child soldier transitions from a victim of war to a victimizer is a result of the fear that overwhelms him. Again, the child soldier undergoes this transition in order to survive the war – anarchetypal mammalian survival response. This study is significant as it has contributed to the existing literature on child soldier narratives in Africa and provided an understanding of the child soldier’s reactions and responses to the devastating trauma that accompanies war.
The paper aims at tracing the genesis of abuse of power and the irresponsibility that goes with it to its full blossoming in Achebe’s fiction through a close reading of Arrow of God and A Man of the People. Disenchantment with leadership in Africa, especially after independence, is not new on the African literary scene. But to Achebe, the problems associated with poor leadership in Africa did not start after independence. Failure in leadership only worsened in most African countries after independence due to the perpetuation of colonial vestiges. By doing a close reading of the two novels and by using the theory of postcoloniality, the researchers compare the traditional world of Ezeulu in Arrow of God to the post-independence setting of Chief Nanga in A Man of the People. The paper concludes that Africa has gone beyond the politics of post-colonialism and is now at the postcoloniality stage. In order for Africans to truly overcome the perennial problem of poor leadership, there is the need for us to first accept our role as a continent in contributing towards the failure of leadership in Africa. There is also the urgency to encourage grass root participation and understanding of modern democracy, to build stronger institutions and to put in place heavier punishments for those who abuse power.
What factors should come first in the choice of an educational programme or a future career for a ward? Is it the interest, potential, and passion of the ward or the ego of the guardian? Is it monetary consideration and social status that should be the criteria based upon which such a decision is made or the criterion of better prospects of a job market? These and other questions are raised and dramatised in Sons and daughters by De Graft. This paper examines the extent to which capitalist ideology plays a role in determining career choice and in creating the familial tensions and conflict that are presented in the play. By applying Marxist theory and praxis to the content and form of the play, it is found that Sons and daughters is not simply about a generational conflict between parents and their children; it equally presents capitalist ideologies that undergird some of the attitudes and decisions that we make on a daily basis. More significantly, evidence from the play indicates that it is the prospects of a job market, the potential and interest of the ward and not the ego of the guardian or the wishful careers of the latter which must come first in the choice of a programme or a future career for a ward.
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