WOMEN IN CHAINS

Women in Chains; Abandonment in Love Relationships in the Fiction of Selected West African Writers examines selected works of Anglophone and Francophone feminist and gynandrist authors who have demonstrated immeasurable concern for the dehumanizing conditions under which the African woman in a familial construct is forced to function in a subcategory role. This study, therefore, considers abandonment as an aberration from the most enduring form of love relationship - marriage.

The non-overt expression of love by the African woman can be mistaken for the non-existence of love in African marriages.  Issues such as barrenness, polygyny, dowry system, lack of free choice in marriage, and gender discrimination are also directly linked to the societal conception and perception of the status and value of the woman, to her own self-perception and consciousness of her individual rights.  This consciousness has produced a wave of a literature of abandonment as seen in, Flora Nwapa=s Efuru, Sembne=s Xala, Vhi-Ciosane, Emecheta=s

The Joys of Motherhood, Second Class Citizen, Mongo Beti=s Perptue, Henri Lopes= La Nouvelle Romance, Ifeoma Okoye's Behind the Clouds, Elechi Amadi=s Estrangement, Ngugi wa Thiongo's Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross, Mariama B>s Une Si Longue Lettre, Un Chant carlate, Aminata Sow Fall's La Grve des Battus, among many other novels. Women in Chains is divided into six chapters that deal with (1) Women In Chains: The Universal Canvas (2) Infertility: Catalyst for Self-Discovery (3) Polygamy and Abandonment (4) Infidelity, Incest and Abandonment (5) Feminist Awareness and the Abandoned Female (6)  Conclusion: The Will To Change.  There is a detailed bibliography at the end.

Rose Ure Mezu was born of Igbo parents in Lagos, Nigeria, on November 12, 1947. She received her early education in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. She studied French in Abidjan and Paris and obtained her B.A. (magna cum laude) and M.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and later obtained a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Dr. Rose Mezu is professor of English and Comparative literature at Morgan State University, Maryland. She is also author of several articles and a book of poems.

CONTENTS
Women in Chains:
The Universal Canvas......................................................... 1

Barrenness:
Catalyst for Self-Discovery................................................. 47

Polygamy & Abandonment ................................................. 89

Infidelity, Incest & Abandonment ...................................... 131

Feminist Awareness & The Abandoned Female ..................175

Conclusion:
The Will to Change ................................................................ 217

Bibliography .......................................................................... 237

Francophone and anglophone feminist and gynandrist novelists (Zynab Alkali, Mariama Ba, Mongo Beti, Buchi Emecheta, Henri Lopez, Amina Sow Fall, Flora Nwapa, Ifeoma Okoye, I.N.C. Aniebo) have dramatized the cause of wronged womanhood and the dehumanizing
and patriarchal conditions under which the African woman is forced to function, often abandoned after exploitation.
Education and economic autonomy become avenues for survival for the oppressed woman. This sometimes creates harmony that sustains companionate union. The study encourages women to exercise the will to change and to transcend the negative strictures (polygamy, barrenness, infidelity) that destabilize homes and promote abandonment.

Customer Reviews: