Redefining black violence a study of select nigerian fiction

Abstract

The study is based on the Nigerian narratives comprising Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe, Efuru (1966) by Flora Nwapa, Bride Price (1975) and Joys of Motherhood (1980) by Buchi Emecheta, Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree (2018) by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. The texts chosen for the study have been analysed in the light of the theoretical framework of violence by Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon and Cathy Caruth. The introductory chapter gives crucial insights into the dynamics of Nigerian violence and a background study on the theoretical aspects of violence. The first chapter is analytical and it enunciates the cloistered and controlled spaces creating identity crises in the lives of the characters in the text Purple Hibiscus Panopticon. Chapter two analyses the seminal text by Chinua Achebe in the light of the theoretical insights of Frantz Fanon. This chapter also examines the complexities and internal conflicts of the characters in the purview of frustration aggression theory proposed by Dollard. The third chapter is analytical and the first half of the chapter engages with the war of Biafra and a close reading of the text Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, under the purview of the trauma theory proposed by Cathy Caruth. The second half of the chapter analyses the human rights violations addressed in the text Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, in the light of Differential Association Theory by Edwin Sutherland. Chapter four examines the process of transition of the women characters in the selected texts by applying the intersectionality theory proposed by Kimberle Crenshaw. Chapter five focuses on the ways by which the women characters experience, survive and navigate the continued spheres of gender based violence in Nigeria