INTRODUCTION
Feminist is the concept of paying
significant attention to women’s rights as well as their position in the
society. It advocates equality between men and women especially with regard to
political, social, and economic considerations. It arises out of the belief
that women were considered unequal to men, and insists that there is need to
redress this unfortunate situation. The focus was to ensure that women gained
equal rights with men.
The subjugation of women was seen as a
historical reality. In the pre-advocacy period, wpmen were considered
subordinated to men and largely excluded from educatin, ownership of property,
economic independence and political reprentation.
In
poetics, for instance , Aristotle argues that women were inferior to men and
should be seen, not heard. Even in religion, the superiority of men over women
was preached with dexterity. It is, therefore, not surprising that the earliest
form of feminism focused on the achievements of equal status for women and men.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
The movement for women advocacy started
to gain magnitude during the French Revolution. As early as 1790, a renowned
philosopher, Antonie Nicolas Condorcet wrote an essay on the admission of women
to full French citizenship. This was only meant to scratch the surface and set
the storm.
Two years later, in 1792, a British scholar, Mary Wollstonecraft,
published the first great document on
feminism. Titled the vindication of the
Rights of women, this extraordinary thinker argued against educational
restriction which, she maintained, kept women in a state of ignorance and
“slavish dependence”.
In the United States of America,
quintessential women like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Emma Willard,
took up campaigns for the rights of women.
With the first feminist convention, led by Elizabeth Candy Stanton and
Lucretia Mott, held in Seneca Falls. New
York, in 1848, the movement gained tremendous impetus. This convention led to
the enactment of Married Women Property Act, passed the same year in New York,
giving women independent legal identity. Women’s suffrage, in the United States
of America, first achieved impetus in the State of Wyoming in 1869. By 1870,
British Married Women’s Property Act had reached its apogee an women were hence
allowed to hold and manage property.
It was not until the end of the nineteenth
century that representations of women in literature began to question the
absurd treatment of women in society. Ultimately, the image of the “new woman”
began to emerge. By the turn of the twentieth century, civil rights movements
gave rise to corresponding women libration, movement which demanded the rights of women to
determine their own identity.
Two
concepts of addressing the issue the emerged: woman as consumer of
male-produced literature, which deals with male-constructed literary criticism;
and woman as artistic producer of the literary product. As producer of
literary works. Women scholars and
critics gave textual meanings, themes, interpretations.
Female language,
literary track of individual or collective works, studies of particular female
writers and works became dominant. They, therefore,
used literature to
dramatize deliberate rejection of imitation and protest, and the entrenchment
of female experience as source of independent art. Most importantly, they
engaged in feminist analyses of literature, redefining and applying sexual
characteristics in the evaluation of the internal and external experiences of
women
.
As Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh point out, criticism of women writers in
general became “divided between the extremes of gender-disavowal and
gender-Obsession”.
PURPOSE/BASIC
ASSUMPTION
In
africa, the conception of women as appendages to men was created by western scholars. It may be
true that in the ancient traditional African society, women were described as
individuals with little or no personal independence, who pass from the control
of the father to that of the husband.
The idea of male domination in the
traditional African society has its origin in the ancient social system. In
most traditional African societies, there were clearly defined divisions of
labour based on gender lines. Men were hunters, warrior and cultivator of
fields. While women were cooks with the responsibility of saving seeds and clearing weeds on the farm already
cultivated by men. This is because of the supposed biological that the male
body possesses more muscle strength.
Virtually all the activities that portrayed heroism in the idyllic African
society were traditionally performed by men. By shielding their women form such
difficult tasks, traditional African did not think of subjugation buy believed that
they were protecting their women
by not subjecting them to such tasks that would humiliate their sex or diminish
their feminine beauty.
The idea or perceiving women as powerless,
and who need the protection of men is a myth created by the colonial masters,
some of who had little or no knowledge of the traditional African society. The
colonial master, rather than making things better for women in the
traditional African society, worsened their position. Though
patriarchal, African societies practiced patriarchy in different ways.
Colonialism caused the imposition of strict European gender definitions in the
African societies. The colonial master completely ignored women in the
scheme of things and consulted men
alone, even on matters where the traditional society permitted a dual
consultation of both men and women.
METHODOLOGY
It is, therefore, clear that the portrayal
of women in African society now wears a new and attractive look. Their
traditional portrayal as people who play secondary but cheerful accepted role
has changed. The new generation of African womanhood is perceivable in the
enlarged society, as well as the pages of African dramatic literature.
Criticism of contemporary African dramatic literature has recorded cases of
male writers who have written plays that portray women as independent, and
rational human beings who do not have to succumb to male domination.
Even in
cases where female characters are not portrayed as the major characters. Their
intelligence and expertise in one aspect of life or another are quite
transparent. Female dramatists in Africa do not only write about being a woman
(woman being) but they describe reality through the woman’s perspective and
exhibit deep empathy for their heroines who, to a large extent, are their
mouthpiece for their personal philosophy of life.
FEMINISM
AND POSTMODERNISM: Finding the Text in the woman
Julian Kristeva notes that there are
three ways that feminists have responded to their subordinated position in the
society:
(1) Liberal feminism, which demands equality for women, (2) Radical
feminism, which argues that women are different from and better than men, and (3)
Postmodern feminism, which rejects the categories of “men” and “women”.
Typically, in the past, American feminists have been liberal feminists, while
French feminists have been radical feminists. Postmodern feminism is, to a
certain extent, a reorientation and melding of American and French feminism
theory.
Mary
Jacobus ends her article “Is there
A Woman in this Text” with the
question, “Is there a text in this woman?” I want to use this question to focus
on how feminists are now “reading” what the term woman means, particularly
since feminists have shown that the sexes are constructed by language and
culture. In the 1980s a number of issues surfaced that had overwhelming
implications for feminist theory. Most importantly, it became dear that
feminists were not a monolithic group with a single agenda.
For example, some
feminists are antipornography because they believe that pornography portrays
women as sex objects. But other feminidts lobby hard against antipornography
laws because such laws might continue to repress women’s new-found ability to
express their sexuality more freely. Likewise, lesbian feminists argue with
heterosexually oriented feminists.
By the mid-1980s feminists wrangled with
a number of questions, including the following: Do women want to equal to men,
or do women want to be seen as different from men? Should feminists mystify motherhood and preach that
woman is the exclusive nourisher of children, or should feminists encourage the
belief that parenting is everyone’s responsibility? Should women’s studies be a
separate discipline, or should the goal be that students learn about women as a
core part of all academic studies? Should feminists try to achieve solidarity,
unity, and agreement, or should they recognize the differences among women?
Should feminists try to create a new definition of “woman” as strong and
empowered, or should feminists try to get rid of all sexual categories? All
this and many more questions are what feminism is set to answer.
SAMPLE
TEXTS FOR ILLUSTRATION
Using Onyekachi Onuoha’s Moonlight
Lady. Onuoha’s reputation as a major romantic writer, though a patriarchy,
shows how the Igbo society is not objective but abusive to nature and women.
In the Moonlight Lady, the protagonist, Ikukuoma is being subjugated and
relegated to the kitchen and taking care of the house. Though brilliant and smart is being deprive the
opportunity to further her education even when she writes and passes her exams
very well. Onuoha shows through this feminists work, that no matter the
challenges that women faces in the patriarchal dominated society, one can still
becomes what one wants.
He uses Ikukuoma’s mother as a moving force to help her
to achieve her dream. Since her father has vowed not to train her in school
calling it a waste of money and resources. Thus he says, “The man must be
encouraged to achieve his potential…a lot is required from a boy to be called a
man but the woman has no such social task and demand. For she is the property
of her husband who should work hard to acquire her and foot her bills even if
she is working. So why should I encourage her when she is the property of a man
who will possess and take her away from the benefit of her father’s
house….”(14)
It is this perspective that patriarch
holds against the women in the society that feminists have come out to fight
against or rather correct this impression. At the end of this wonderful book,
Onuoha is able to portray the good course of women and give them hope in their
struggles and shows that a woman is capable of making things happen if giving
the opportunity. So, Ikukuoma gets admission, schools, marries and becomes a
refined woman that goes places and earns her respect.
In So
long a letter Mariama Ba, she uses her protagonist, Ramatoulaye, though it
is a letter to her friend, Assatou; she shows the challenges and struggles
women faces in marriage and in their families. Ba, as a feminists writer
portrays her characters in a way that despite the subjugation and dejections
they faces in their(men) hands. Their lives do not and can exist without them.
Little wonder why we see Aissatou buying a car for her friend Ramatoulaye so as
to ease her transportation problems after she (Aissatou) has divorced and is
now on her own.
Also, in The Stillborn, by Zaynab Akali, she gives voice and authority to
her female characters and makes them to be looked up to in the family, Li, is
being referred to as “MAN” in the house and nothing is done on her absence. She
does things that are seen by the society as man’s work. After her disappointed
marriage, she decides to ahead with her life and she does so by acquiring a
degree which fetches her money and respect and peace of mind. Through a woman’s
(Zaynab) eyes, we follows one girl’s passage to womanhood and struggle for
independence.
Prof.
Tonia Umoren in her wonderful book:
Portrait of Womanhood in African Literary Tradition. As a feminist
adovocate, she uses her literary experience to debunk Elechi Amadi’s works on
how women are seen in the society by saying, “like in The Concubine, and The Great
Ponds, in The Slave, Amadi uses Sexist language that qualifies manliness with
strength leaving the opposite obvious. The language resents any traits in a man
that are feminine.” (69)
In a nutshell, all the textual references
and their authors has tried to re-orient the society of what the women stand
for and can achieve if giving the opportunity. And these are what the feminists
stands to correct and pleads for a level playing ground for both sexes
especially the “weaker vessel”(women).
REFERENCES
Gail,
Houston(1994).Feminist Criticism: The critical experience. USA: Kendall/Hunt
Publishing Ltd.
Nwabueze,
Emeka (2011). Feminist Criticism: Dramatic Literature. Enugu, Nigeria: ABIC books & Equip.Ltd.
Onuoha,
Onyekachi (2015). Moonlight Lady. Owerri, Nigeria: Cel-bez Publishing co.
Umoren,
Tonia (2014). Portrait of Womanhood in African Literature: Reflections on
Elechi Amadi’s work: Akwa-Ibom, Nigeria: Development universal Consoritia.
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