RETHINKING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN THIRD‐GENERATION NIGERIAN WOMEN’S FICTION

Abstract

Third‐generation Nigerian female writers’ representation of gender in local spaces through the rethinking of family relationships reflects a development and change from the first and second generation female writers Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, and Ifeoma Okoye. In a comparative analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2004), Unoma Azuah’s Sky‐High Flames (2005), Sade Adeniran’s Imagine This (2007) and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come (2005), a distinct pattern emerges of the young girl‐child / woman character developing into a matured, strong womanist. As female characters challenge their familial relationships, they develop their sense of personhood, reclaiming wholeness, authority and female subjectivity, changing prescribed roles and structures.

Keywords

• Nigeria
• Womanism
• family relationships
• women
• fiction