Oral Literature and the Representation of the Image of the woman in the Contemporary African Context: The Study of Nso, Mbum and Idoma Proverbs (Published)
The paper investigates the representation of the image of the woman in oral literature using selected proverbs from Nso, Mbum and Idoma oral communities. The paper is anchored on the prediction that these proverbs are both ideologically and aesthetical relevant to the communities that produce them. The thrust of argument of this paper resides around the premise that the languages of the people are vectors of their significant view points, and collective cultural experiences. The study holds that as an aspect of oral literature, proverbs serve various functions and one of such is that as mirrors of the social and cultural experiences of the people they can be read as instruments that reveal how women are viewed, thought of, expected to act, live and behave in the society. From the functionalist perspective and the relevance theoretic lens, the paper sees proverbs as contributing in uncountable ways to the positive transformation of oral communities due to their dynamic and transcendental character. The analysis revealed that the selected proverbs under scrutiny in this study are effective instruments through which one can perceive the representation of the image of a woman in most African oral communities for a better transformation, recognition, and reevaluation of developmental policies.
Keywords: Oral literature, Proverbs, Representation., image, woman
The Image of Victorian Women As Depicted In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Published)
This paper attempts to explore how successful Charlotte Bronte is in creating for her novel Jane Eyre a heroine of her age, dramatizing her own autobiography, including social problems that she encountered as a woman during the Victorian era. And how she can tackle and address many nineteenth century Victorian social problems such as class and gender inequality, race prejudice, and religious beliefs. The research uses the descriptive analytical method, and in it is revealed that Bronte has deliberately created Jane, the main character along with other female characters to refute Victorian inherited conventions that treated women unfairly, many critics and writers think and confirm that women were oppressed during Victorian era. Bronte made an innovation by raising a powerful, passionate, female character who can articulate her thought, and fight for her rights. This portrayal contracts with the real women images of Victorian time, who were oppressed and marginalized by men. It is sum up that Charlotte Bronte revolts against the inequality between men and women during the nineteenth century, she portrays this rejection in the Jane Eyre’s resistant behavior.
Keywords: Inferior, Representation., Response, image, passionate