A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GENDER REPRESENTATIONS IN PROVERBS IN

FOUR SECLECTED TEXTS; THINGS FALL APART, THE BEAUTYFUL ONES ARE

NOT YET BORN, SO LONG A LETTER & THE AFRICAN CHILD.

A PhD Synopsis submitted as Admission Requirement

INTRODUCTION

This work will investigate the gender representations carried through proverbs in these four

African literary texts- Things Fall apart, the beautiful ones are not yet born, So Long a letter

and the African Child written by Chinua Achebe, Ayikwei Armah, Mariama Bâ and Camara

Laye respectively. The study will examine how these four authors metaphorically and

linguistically construct their characters. My interest in the representation of gender across

these four books is influenced by my reading of Butler’s feminist ideology of gender

performativity and construction. In this theory she argues that gender roles are constructed by

society; this is what I find riveting to relate to my proposed research. To facilitate my

investigation into the constructions of gender through proverbs in these four contemporary

African novels, I will employ Critical Discourse Analysis in the discursive analysis of the

novels. In this regard the study will explore the way male and female genders are viewed

within the African society.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

African literature in European languages, otherwise known as “Euro-African literature”

(Bandia 28) is the product of an encounter between two different cultures- European and

African. The four literary texts in the proposed research are of anglophone and francophone

1
background. These are two contexts that capture different realities. The anglophones

experienced British indirect rule which did not stand between Africans and their culture

whereas the French colonial administration introduced the colonial policy of assimilation

where the French values were imposed on the affected colonies’ people and cultures. In this

regard, the anglophone writers will tend to present more of their culture through Proverbs

which will help the researcher to know their ideology. The francophones have a different

experience so it would be worth to also know how they construct Gender through proverbs in

the selected literary texts. According to Hussein (2005), “a gender study based on proverbs

from a single society does not provide a fuller understanding of the ethnocultural construction

of masculinity and femininity in Africa” (63). Hence, a closer look at how anglophones and

francophones construct their gender would aid the “fuller understanding” of the ethnocultural

constructs Hussein calls for.

THEORETICAL FOCUS

1. Gender Performativity and construction (Butler)

2. Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the literary and language features used in the portrayal of gender

representations and their effect on gender?

2. Socially what are the roles and ideologies of gender represented among post-colonial

literature in English and French?

3. How does post-colonial literature in English and French represent gender in proverbs?

LITERATURE REVIEW

2
It is important to acknowledge here that there have been numerous studies conducted on most

African novels in general. Most of the studies however have focused on the thematic

concerns of the novels as well as the style of the writers. For example, Mwinlaaru (2012)

focused on the stylistics and point of view of Achebe’s Anthills of the Savanna.

Adjei (2009) examines narrative subjectivity in the first three novels of Amma Darko taking

into consideration “the condescending manner in which Darko treats her male characters” (2)

which reveals the position of the writer in relation to the issues explored in the texts. From “a

feminist (con)text, this tends to subordinate the writing process to the pleasures, prejudices

and the ideological and pedagogic intentions of the writer as a woman” (1). The study views

Darko's portrayal of the male as an opportunity to vent up feelings about the treatment of the

African woman over the years.

In a similar work of analysing a novel, Akçesme (2010) examined the gendered discourses in

the novels of three writers to investigate how the writers linguistically construct their

characters as gendered beings as an effect of certain identity politics, ideologies and power

structures. Critical discourse analysis was applied to selected passages chosen from different

parts of the novels to prove that the gendered discourses were ideologically driven.

In relation to proverbs, Hussein (2009) studies how gendered ideology is discursively framed

in some sexist proverbs selected from Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Diabah and Amfo (2015)

also study the representation of women in Akan proverbs by focusing on only the linguistic

strategies employed in such proverbs. It therefore becomes clear that, the gender

representations in proverbs in novels are yet to be explored. This study will therefore look at

both the masculine and feminine constructs in proverbs in these selected texts so as to elicit

the gender-related ideology of the anglophones and francophones.

METHODOLOGY

3
The study will adopt the textual analysis approach. This is because it will assist greatly in

answering the research questions which guide this study. Proverbs that relate to men and

women will be selected from these texts and put into various groups

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adjei, M. "Male-bashing and narrative subjectivity in Amma Darko's first three novels."

SKASE Journal of Literary Studies (2009): 47-61.

Akçesme, I B. Comparative Discourse Analyses of Gender Constructions in the novels of

Robert Heinlein, Ursula le Guin, Joanna Russ and Samuel Delany. Middle East

Technical University : PhD Thesis , 2010.

Armah, Ayi Kwei. The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

Bâ, Mariama . So Long a letter . London: Heinemann, 1981.

Bandia , Paul. Translation as Reparation: Writing and Translation in Postcolonial Africa.

Manchester : St. Jerome Publishing, 2009.

Diabah, Grace and Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. "Caring Supporters or Daring Usurpers?

Representation of Women in Akan Proverbs." SAGE Journal. Discourse and Society

26.1 (2015).

Fonchingong, Charles. "Unbending Gender Narratives in African Literature." Journal of

International Women's Studies 8.1 (2006): 135-146.

Hussein, J W. "The Social and Ethno-cultural Construction of Masculinity and Feminity in

African proverbs." African Study Monographs 26.2 (2005): 59-87.

Hussein, Jeylan Wolyie. "Women in Sample Proverbs from Ethipia, Sudan, and Kenya."

Research in African Literatures 40.3 (2009): 96-108.

4
Kolawole, Mary E. Modupe. Womanism and African Consciousness. Trenton: Africa World

Press, 1997.

Laye , Camara. The African Child. Farar, Straus and Giroux, 1954.