Feminism In Nigerian Literature Essay

the heart of feminist writing in Nigeria lies the vigorous pursuance of proper representation of women in literary texts the society and the effort for the educational empowerment of women. In the Nigerian contemporary society, feminism manifests as the plea against unnecessary societal injunctions on women. It is not a struggle for equality or a fight for supremacy. The feminist view point in the Nigerian context therefore becomes a plea for life. A plea for the opportunity and the chance to live a fulfilled life, a yearning for empowerment educational and all otherwise. The need for this arises because there is the traditional tendency of the Nigerian society to restrict the women to their biological roles as wives and mothers. This is carried into all spheres of the societal life. If rears its head in literature where it puts a strong ban on women. In Nigerian male-authored texts, especially this view is up held without compromise as if the biological role is the only destiny for the Nigerian women. The tendency to relegate women to the background becomes naturally, a part of the patriarchal ideology of the Nigerian society, which seems among other things to place women just at the very brink of existence. As a result, the “eve motif” or the image of

The female voices in Nigerian literature comes up as a total and implicit rejection of this derogatory life style created by the norms of the society, to restrict and subjugate women both in real life and in the fictive sphere. Since literature is a weapon of authority, women writers have together used it as a medium to promote and give value to the lives of women, thereby filling successfully the gulf between the male and female characters in the