Urban Ambivalence and Female Autonomy

Exploring Choice in the African City

Authors

  • Theresah Patrine Ennin University of Cape Coast and The University of South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56666/ahyu.v7i.155

Keywords:

the African city, female empowerment, spatial dynamics, agency

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The politics of self-empowerment and agency by women in an African city can be examined in Changes: A love Story (1991) and Americanah (2013). These texts describe women in the city negotiating relationships in a changing terrain that simultaneously propels and restrains their agency. It is important to foreground the extent to which gender shapes experiences and representations of the city and foregrounds the efforts of Aidoo and Adichie to create imaginative space for women. The struggle faced by the female protagonist to find autonomy in the urban environment often results in the quest of self-discovery and self-identity causing the city to become representative of rebirth and regeneration.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

References

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Anchor Books, 2014.

Aidoo, Ama Ata. Changes: A love Story. Sub-Saharan Publishers, 1999.

Aidoo, Ama Ata. No Sweetness Here. The Feminist Press, 1970.

Akingbe, Niyi and Emmanuel Adeniyi. ‘Reconfiguring Others’: Negotiating Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. IX, No. 4. 2017.

Allan, Tuzyline Jita. “Afterword.” In Changes: A Love Story, by Ama Ata Aidoo, The Feminist Press. 1993, pp.171–196.

Ennin, Theresah P. “The Making of Akan Men: Confronting Hegemonic Masculinities in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Healers and Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa.” Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 2 (2) 2014, pp. 41-62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/spectrum.2.2.41

Baingana, Doreen. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe. Abuja: Cassava Republic, 2005.

Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent.UK: Methuen & Co., 1907.

Curry, Ginette. “Women from Ghana: Their Urban Challenges in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 32 (1): 2011, pp.179–198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/fro.2011.a434414

Da Silva, Santana, and Meyre Ivone. "Metaphors of Modernity: Palimpsestic Identities, Polygamous Marriages and Global Capitalism in Aidoo’s Changes: A Love Story." Alicante Journal of English Studies Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 36: 2021, pp.131-147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2022.36.07

Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. Britain: The Women’s Press, 1988.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Sign of the Four. UK: Spencer Blackett, 1890.

Duce, Violeta. "Social media and female empowerment in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah." The European Legacy 26.3-4: 2021, pp. 243-256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2021.1891667

Elliot, T. S. “The Waste land”. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922.

Ekwensi, Cyprian. Jaguar Nana. UK: Heinemann, 1961.

Guarracino, S. Writing “so raw and true”: Blogging in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. Between, 4(8). 2014.

Iromuanya, Julie. “Are We All Feminists? The Global Black Hair Industry and Marketplace in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah.” Meridians 16 (1): 2018, pp.163–183. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.16.1.17

Lyle, Caroline. "Afropolitanism for Black Women: Sexual Identity and Coming to Voice in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah." Aspeers 11. 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54465/aspeers.11-07

McCoy, Shane A. “The “outsider within”: Counter-narratives of the “new” African diaspora in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah” Journal of the African Literature Association, 11:3. 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21674736.2018.1424389

Nwanyanwu, Augustine Uka. "Transculturalism, Otherness, Exile, and Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah". Matatu 49.2: 386-399. 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-04902008

Paton, Allan. Cry the Beloved Country. UK: Scribners, 1948.

Phiri, Aretha. “Expanding black subjectivities in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, Cultural Studies, 31:1, 2017, pp. 121-142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2016.1232422

Stevenson, Louis Robert. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1886.

Toivanen, Anna-Leena. “Anxious Mobilities in Accra and Beyond”. Matatu 49.2: 2017, pp. 307-328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-04902005

Wilentz, Gay. Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and The Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Woolf, Virginia. Street Haunting and other Essays. Random House, 1930, 2022

Downloads

Published

2024-12-04

How to Cite

Ennin, T. P. (2024). Urban Ambivalence and Female Autonomy: Exploring Choice in the African City. Ahyu: A Journal of Language and Literature, 7, 62–73. https://doi.org/10.56666/ahyu.v7i.155
Share |