Female Subjectivity: A Re-reading of Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter (Published)
Polygamy in Africa has being in existence before the advent of religion, western education and colonization. Once upon a time, polygamy had numerous advantages, so much so that the benefits superseded the disadvantages. But this is not the case today. Over the years, scholars from different fields of knowledge have contributed to the discourse of polygamy, while trying to investigate its necessity in the lives of the each individual in the family. While most were against it, few were in support of it. Bâ explores the problems of polygamy, patriarchy and female oppression in the context of African and Western cultures. She critiques polygamy by exploring its cons in the lives of women. This essay looks at the contribution imaginative literature has to offer to this discourse. Hence, this essay examines the portrayal of polygamy as it relates to female subjectivity in Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter; especially how religion and society contributes to the oppression of women and children in a polygamous relationship.
Citation: Kehinde, Kemi Rebecca (2022) Female Subjectivity: A Re-reading of Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.10, No.5, pp. 50-55
Keywords: Culture, Polygamy, Religion., Society, family
Yearning for Freedom in a Prison without Bars in Two Novels: Ṣamt al-Farāshāt/ Silence of the Butterflies by Laylā al-ʿUthmān and Lam ʾAʿud ʾAbkī / I Do not Cry Anymore by Zaynab Ḥifnī (Published)
The crisis of freedom that the Gulf woman lives in under a patriarchal male culture that is biased against her and against the Arab woman in general, turns her into a prisoner who lives behind moral bars. Under these circumstances, the Gulf woman’s writing becomes a conflict with the man’s concepts and the patriarchal male mentality of her society. However, by writing, she reveals the issues of her scandalous oppression, and emancipates herself from her shackles. Writing is one of the forms of freedom, through which she regains her voice that has been stolen from her as a woman and a creative artist. This study seeks to reveal the manifestations of oppression that the woman is exposed to in the feminist Gulf literature in two novels: Ṣamt al-Farāshāt by Laylā al-ʿUthmān, and Lam ʾAʿud ʾAbkī by Zaynab Ḥifnī as samples. The study will reveal the woman’s figurative ‘prison’ and ‘jailor’: the prison of society with its norms and traditions, and the prison of the Man and his domination as images of her oppression by marriage, and by the siege of social norms, the culture of silence, her prevention from choosing her job and her creative freedom. In return, the study will observe the features of her revolution and rebellion against all these figurative “prisons” such as her refusal of the traditional marriage, her resistance by writing, her search for love, and breakage of the sex taboo. The woman manifests herself between the character of the ‘prisoner’ and the ‘rebellious’ woman, between her ‘yearning for freedom’ and her ‘revolt’ against the ‘bars’ in order to realize herself and break the taboos.
Keywords: Females, Freedom, Prison, Society, Traditions, bars, males
Feminism & Hegemony from the Perspective of Man and Superman & Arms and the Man of George Bernard Shaw (Published)
This article aims to evaluate both texts Man and Superman & Arms and The Man of George Bernard Shaw critically. This research piece contains venerated tradition of the society towards women as well as captures the vigorous voice against suppression. In this research, the dominating tendency of one group over other will be identified specifically. Here, the supremacy of British Colonialism along with the capitalistic mentality of American will be discussed with significant points. Treatment of refugees at the dominating states during war and famine will also be evaluated in this article pivotally. Both texts are dissected in this research article to probe the voice of feminism and to show the extensive gap between higher, middle and lower class of our society. Comparative discussion will be given in this research piece in order to connect homogeneous issues.
Citation: Fahmeda Yeasmin (2021) Feminism & Hegemony from the Perspective of Man and Superman & Arms and the Man of George Bernard Shaw, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.9, No.7, pp.11-23
Keywords: Class, Dominance, Power, Society, Women, clash
Auto-Fiction between Imagination and Reality: Aesthetics of Writing of the Arab Female Writer in the Exile of Her Society- Nawal al-Sa’dawi’ As a Model (Published)
Auto-fiction in its modern concept is considered an art that is a product of the modern cultural development that has conquered the world since 19 B.C. This ‘culture’ carries all the components of innovation and constant growth in human life, including the means of material and technological product, the scientific and medical prosperity, and appearance of new sciences in the arena of application and experimentation, which had not been known before, with new concepts, which helped a lot in understanding the human soul in all its conditions. Among the advantages of this awareness is the popularity of people’s interests in what is known today in modern literature by the name of the art of auto-fiction. Thus, the writer’s life or any life of any person who likes to write his autobiography are no more surrounded by precautions, prohibitions or taboos. Previously, it was forbidden to approach certain issues or even thinking about them because they were considered taboos.[1]It is possible to consider rebellion against norms, breaking social shackles, overcoming all the difficulties of reality and aspiration for emancipation as the most important motives that characterize the woman’s autobiography in the modern era. These motives characterize the modern woman’s discourse, which is actually achieved in her autobiography at all levels.
Citation: Hanan Bishara (2021) Auto-Fiction between Imagination and Reality: Aesthetics of Writing of the Arab Female Writer in The Exile of Her Society- Nawal Al-Sa’dawi’ As A Model, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.9, No.6, pp.37-55
Keywords: Aesthetics, Female, Feminism, Male, Society, auto-fiction
Treatment of Violence in King Lear and Bond’s Lear (Published)
The purpose of this research paper is to examine Bond’s Lear in relation to which it “stands to Shakespeare’s great original” (Smith 194). Both plays deal with the issues of political and economic power and investigates the relation of aggression and violence present within nature of human beings when it comes to their struggle over supremacy and rule. This paper focuses tendency of ruling individuals to assert aggression and violence and research work tends to explore both plays in the light of Bond’s Preface to his version of Lear
Keywords: Bond's Lear, King Lear, Society, Violence, and political struggle, economic power
FROM INGNORANCE TO EXPERIENCE: PROTAGONISTS OF DYNAMISM IN FESTUS IYAYI’S VIOLENCE AND HEROES (Published)
This paper foregrounds the notion of dynamic protagonist in Festus Iyayi’s two novels. Idemudia and Iyere are seen as protagonists of dynamism whose volte-face as the plots unfold is orchestrated by their new experience, knowledge and maturity. Idemudia who starts off as an idealist with rose tinted spectacles fashioned from the mill of inexperience later becomes a life-beaten but introspective realist who has come to appreciate that life’s sacrifices come in different forms. Similarly, Osime Iyere who initially sees humanity in the federal troops and undiluted savagery on the Biafran side during the civil war later comes to see the two sides in the war as nothing but murderers and rapists of defenceless civilians. His contention, therefore, is that the war is actually a huge conspiracy of the blood-sucking bourgeoisie on both sides against the masses in general who can only be saved by a neutral third army with membership from both sides. In conclusion, the paper states that by artistically placing the two protagonists in the two novels where their experiences invest them with the correct education toward combating the oppressive alienating disorder in the society Iyayi’s thesis is clear: the masses must be correctly educated about the nature of the society in order to wage a meaningful war against its crushing lopsidedness.
Keywords: Bourgeoisie, Dynamism, Masses, Plot, Protagonists, Society
THE SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOME OF THE EPISODES IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S NOVEL “A MAN OF THE PEOPLE (Review Completed - Accepted)
The purpose of this Article is bring to the fore how Chinua Achebe has used A Man of the people to condemn the societal belief that politics is the best avenue for making money, which often lead people into siphoning money from the government purse unnecessarily when they finally have access to the mantle of power. Achebe has used different episodes in A Man of the People to show Clearly African people`s thinking about the political terrain, seeing it as an avenue to enrich themselves, with the Society adoring Corrupt politicians abnormally. This research work aims at exploring the implications of Achebe`s focus in putting in place this novel.
Keywords: Belief, Corruption, Episodes, Literary, Politics, Society