Challenging Gender Discourse and the Maternal in Society: An Analysis of Female Agency in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah within the Framework of Irigaray’s Theory

Subject Areas : Journal of Language, Culture, and Translation

Hasti  Soltani ¹ (Hasti Soltani Ph.D Candidate Department of Language and English Literature, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.)
Ali  Salami ² (Faculty of Foreign Languages and English Literature)
Mohsen  Hanif ³ (Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2023-08-06 Accepted : 2023-10-17 Published : 2023-11-01

Keywords: Gender differences, Nature, maternal concept, Social position, Cultural forces,

Abstract :

This study examines the theory of Luce Irigaray on the abolition of gender differences and the notion of motherhood in order to emphasize the alleged superiority of men. It also analyzes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah. Irigaray argues that women’s identity has historically been defined by their maternal role, claiming that men’s identity is shaped by discourse, culture, and subjectivity, while women are characterized by nature, marginalization, and objectification. Contrary to Irigaray’s assertion, the female protagonists in Americanah are portrayed as being as closely associated with culture and discourse as their male counterparts, rather than nature and neglect. Moreover, it focuses on Germaine Greer’s theories specifically on the genuine freedom of ladies requires an otherworldly liberation that goes before physical flexibility. As it has shown throughout this article this freedom includes a dismissal of the profoundly imbued social and social standards that oversee female behavior. The novel foregrounds the voices of women whose expressions are suppressed by social norms. Each female character in the narrative takes on a significant cultural role and challenges Irigaray’s perspective. This study addresses gender inequalities and questions the perpetuation of misogynistic gender narratives that uphold the dominant social order and favor dominant groups.

References:

Adichie, C. N. (2013). Americanah. New York: Penguin Ransom House.
Allouene, I., & Samah, A. (2020). Nigerian Female Characters: Should They All Be Feminists? In Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi.
Anghel, A. (2021). On the impact of migration, ‘Blackness’ and gender on a young woman’s identity construction in the United States - Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres, Université catholique de Louvain.
Anyidoho, K. (1989). The Pan-African Ideal in Literatures of the Black World. Ghana: Ghana Universities Press.
Božić, K. (2020). Feminist Pedagogy in the Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek.
Fanon, F. (1968). Black Skin White Masks. Grove Press.
Francisco, D. E. de Souza. (2020). Being Black: Race, Hair Politics, Love and Diasporic Identities in Americanah. Florianópolis.
Hooks, B. (1981). Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. London: Pluto Press.
Irigaray, L. (1985). This Sex Which is Not One, trans. by Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Jay, M. (1993). Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nyawira, M. C. (2020). Immigration And Women’s Self-Identity in Selected Novels of Adichie, Bulawayo and Baingana. Kenyatta University.
Otero, S. L. C. (2021). An Immigrant Black Woman in America: An Intersectional Analysis of Adichie’s Americanah. Universidade Da Coruña.
Ragland-Sullivan, E. (1992). The Symbolic’, in Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary, ed. by Elizabeth Wright. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 420-423.
Temitayo, A. O. (2021). Transgressive Space and Body in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. University of South Africa.