Over the span of three centuries, the Afro-British tradition has managed to establish itself as a distinguished voice in Britain's literary and cultural scene. While unearthing its first attempts at self-definition, this dissertation first engages with the slave tradition in the particular context of Eighteenth century Enlightenment England, and explores how its emergence initiated the re-inscription of the black race within humankind after years of exclusion. By adopting a feminist and cultural perspective, this essay spotlights the female contribution, it equally examines the extent to which the double discrimination of race and gender further complicates the female identity formation project. Significantly, Second Class Citizen, In The Ditch and Head Above Water stand as typical Afro-British texts that strongly resonate with earlier voices of the tradition, while promoting strategies of resistance and ultimately disturbing contructions of womanhood and female subjectivity. Through these narratives, Buchi Emecheta inscribes herself as a true heiress of an Afro-British female textuality inaugurated two centuries earlier by a pioneering figure as prestigious as Mary Prince. In its effort to uncover the identity politics informing this literary and discursive body, this study lays emphasis on the significance of generic choice to the Afro-British female self-telling via autobiography, while placing it within the much wider project of nation-telling.
Table of Contents
I. AUTOBIOGRAPHY: A FEMALE SELF-DEFINING MECHANISM
1.1. Women’s Autobiography: A Contribution to “Herstory”
1.2 Negotiating Identity:
II. Buchi Emecheta’s Autobiographical Fiction:
2.1. Second Class Citizen / In the Ditch: Identity in liminality
2.2. Writing as an Empowering Practice:
III. AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS POLITICAL COMMITMENT:
3.1. Head Above Water or Self/Nation-Telling:
3.2. Writing as a Movement Beyond Gender Roles:
Research Objectives and Themes
The work examines the role of autobiography as a self-defining mechanism for female writers, specifically focusing on Buchi Emecheta's Afro-British texts. It explores how these narratives construct identity in the diaspora, engage with postcolonial and feminist agendas, and utilize literature as a site of political commitment and individual empowerment.
- Identity formation in the Afro-British diaspora
- The intersection of postcolonialism and feminism in autobiographical fiction
- The power of the "word" and self-writing as resistance
- Critique of gender roles and cultural marginalization
- Strategies of language appropriation in postcolonial literature
Excerpt from the book
Buchi Emecheta’s Autobiographical Fiction:
Buchi Emecheta stands today as the best female writer and novelist Nigeria has ever produced. Her worth and reach can well be gauged by the genuine critical acclaim her works have received, as well as by the popularity of her writings both in Africa and in the West. To this date, she is the most widely read African woman writer, and is considered as a pioneering figure in many ways. Her reputation as a major voice in female African literature is fundamentally due to the continuing influence of her writings on whole generations of African writers, in addition to the warfare she launched against the victimization of women, and for her struggle for the liberation and emancipation of women in Africa and elsewhere. This, perhaps, explains the tendency in literary criticism to read Emecheta’s works as feminist protest, while disregarding other equally important dimensions. If it is impossible, as Abioseh Michael Porter remarks: “ to suggest that in evaluating the works of a writer such as Emecheta (who in all her novels deals quite seriously with the role of women in various societies), one can avoid the feminist question”, it is something else, however, “to imply that this is the only aspect worth examining in her oeuvre”.207
Emecheta’s career presents the particularity of sharing the experience of displacement with many of her fellow African writers, who crossed the borders of their national cultures and did “the voyage in” to the center. Standing today as a prominent diasporic figure, she is a heiress of the Black-British female tradition, a tradition inaugurated by Mary Prince nearly two centuries earlier. This section attempts to examine Emecheta’s autobiographical works in the light of the black autobiographical tradition, while exploring ways in which she (Emecheta) connects to early diasporic writers such as Mary Prince, within the wider focus of uncovering the identity politics informing Black-British subject formation.
Summary of Chapters
I. AUTOBIOGRAPHY: A FEMALE SELF-DEFINING MECHANISM: This chapter analyzes how autobiography serves as an enabling paradigm for women to reconstruct their identity and history, connecting feminist agendas with postcolonial perspectives on displacement.
II. Buchi Emecheta’s Autobiographical Fiction:: This section explores Emecheta's "London novels" and their significance as a form of resistant autobiography that addresses the intersection of race, class, and gender in the diaspora.
III. AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS POLITICAL COMMITMENT:: This chapter investigates how Emecheta moves beyond fiction to explicit autobiographical writing, using her life story to interrogate mother-daughter bonds, oral tradition, and the politics of exile.
Keywords
Buchi Emecheta, Autobiography, Afro-British literature, Identity formation, Feminism, Postcolonialism, Diaspora, Self-definition, Female subjectivity, Resistance, National allegory, Counter-memory, Motherhood, Gender roles, Marginality
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this academic work?
The work focuses on how Buchi Emecheta utilizes autobiographical narratives to define female identity and resist marginalization within the Afro-British diasporic context.
What are the primary themes discussed throughout the chapters?
The central themes include the construction of the displaced self, the intersection of postcolonial and feminist agendas, the impact of patriarchal structures, and the act of writing as a political tool for emancipation.
What is the core research objective?
The primary goal is to examine how Emecheta's works function as "counter-memories" or "national allegories," providing an alternative narrative to official histories and challenging Western constructions of the African female subject.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The work employs a literary and postcolonial analytical framework, utilizing theories from scholars like Bhabha, Jameson, and Lejeune to examine the autobiographical contract and the politics of narrative construction.
What topics are covered in the main section of the book?
The main sections cover the evolution of Emecheta's writing from autobiographical fiction to direct autobiography, her critique of British welfare and racial politics, and her re-examination of domestic roles and motherhood.
Which key terms characterize this study?
Key terms include "diasporic identity," "liminality," "writing back," "herstory," "counter-memory," and "mental colonization."
How does Emecheta’s specific use of language serve her narrative?
Emecheta uses English as a tool of subversion and resistance, attempting to create her own phrases and linguistic medium to express her cultural heritage despite the limitations of the colonizer's tongue.
What role does the "mother figure" play in Emecheta's writings as analyzed in the text?
The mother figure is described as highly complex and ambivalent; she serves as a symbol of ancestral tradition and strength, but also highlights the ongoing struggles of African women against patriarchal and colonial oppressions.
- Quote paper
- Hind Essafir (Author), 2019, Female Diasporic Identity Formation. A Reading of Buchi Emecheta’s Afro-British Texts, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1117250
