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Gender Portrayal in Selected Early and Later Post-War Male and Female-Authored

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Gender Portrayal in Selected Early and Later Post-War Male and Female-Authored CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background to the Study Literature is the recreation of life of a society in both its traditional and contemporary forms. Ogunde (1991: 1) opines that “the mainstream of African writing to date derives ultimately from definite historical events or social conditions.” According to Ogunde (1991: 1) “every literary work is a response to definite historical, socio-political, cultural, religious and traditional situations.” The Igbo writer as a member of Igbo society depicts Igbo life and socio-cultural conditions of men and women in Igbo society. Nsolibe (2008: 49) shows that “Igbo literature transmits information about social reality, human nature, the states of consciousness of the writers, and their personal visions of life or information about values and practices relevant for everyday life of men and women in Igbo community.” Consequently, the Igbo novel is another medium through which we learn about gendered lives in Igbo society. Gender is a topical issue, especially as it concerns the socio-cultural position of men and women in society. Many scholars have argued that the perception of men and women in society affects the way they are portrayed in creative writing (Chukwukere, 2000; Kolmar and Bartkowki, 2000; Cornwall, 2005; Sudarkasa, 2005; Akorede, 2011). The roles of male and female in African society were often described as separate and complementary, yet most writers ascribe to men a better position and a higher status (Sudarkasa, 2005). Consequently, the roles of females are considered insignificant to those of males because of the greater „power and status‟ accorded to males more than females in most societies (Lips, 1997). According to Lips (1997) if women and men are 1 accorded equal status in society, many of the differences in behaviour that are attributed to gender would disappear. In a typical Igbo society, there are socio-cultural roles ascribed to men, women, boys and girls in the family. The chores such as hewing of wood, tapping of wine, harvesting of palm fruits, cultivation of yam and bread-winning are exclusive male roles. Conversely, chores like cooking, washing, baby-sitting, sweeping and other home management activities are exclusive female roles. However, some roles are unisex. Such roles include fetching of water, laundering, petty trading, crafts and running errands. The roles assigned to men and women as enumerated above encouraged gender discriminatory practices between the male and female gender. This is evident in the roles performed by males as family heads (those who have authority over everything, especially over women as wives, mothers, daughters and sisters) and the females‟ roles as wives, cooks, and mothers (Onuegbu, 2004). The power and control men have over women force women to maintain the maternal position assigned to their biology (Lips, 1997). The cultural roles assigned to male and female contribute to the behavioural patterns they exhibit in the Igbo society. Men, as household authorities and family heads, display superior, possessive, aggressive, and rational behaviour, while women, as wives and mothers, display emotional, caring and submissive behaviour (Dorenkamp, McClymer, Moynihan, & Vadum, 1985; Crawford and Unger 2004; Ikonne 2008). Most men and women in traditional Igbo society freely, happily and strictly accept their positions because they see their roles as natural and ordained. In view of this, mothers socialise their daughters to take up their roles and teach them to be passive, docile, submissive and domestic whereas sons identify with 2 their fathers roles to achieve their manhood and the power that goes with it. As such the boys take on aggressiveness and other symbols of male identity (Garrett, 1987). The trend is transferred from one generation to the next. The women in Igbo traditional society could not challenge the cultural limitations which they experience in different forms, especially in the family, society, economy, polity and literature. Even when some women perform roles traditionally ascribed to men such as bread-winning, the women are still not recognised in Igbo society. Consequently, gender-based description is unbalanced against the female. This development is of serious concern to many scholars, especially women, who observed through literature that the society is engaged in differentiating males from females (Hawthorn, 2005). The socio-cultural description of gender roles destines women for a social life entirely different from that of men. It encourages males to view their interests differently from females, and promote in men a sense of superiority over women. Some scholars such as Richardson and Taylor (1993) argue that the roles ascribed to each gender are vital to gender distinction in patriarchal societies such as the Igbo, because it conditions social behaviour from childhood into adulthood. According to them: As totally dependent infants we are socialized - taught the rules, roles, and relationships of the social world we will inherit. We exchange our infant hedonism for love, protection, and the attention of others; in the process, we learn to think, act, and feel as we are “supposed to” (p. 41). These societal orientations on gender roles are internalized in a way to define one‟s self and evaluate one‟s own behaviour. Through gender roles, females visualize themselves as a weaker being while the males portray themselves as strong and active. Consequently, gender identity is maintained in Igbo literature as in their society. The existence of sex-based 3 prejudices in Igbo society is, for instance, evident in their novels. This study aims to examine gender portrayal in selected early and later post-war male and female-authored Igbo novels using the womanist African theory. 1.1 Statement of the Problem The premise of the study is the claim by the feminists that literature is sexist; a view equally supported by the womanists. The position of the feminists is that male writers, especially the early ones, present a lopsided view of gender, which is derogatory to the female gender. They believe that the positive or negative pattern of gender portrayal stems from the patriarchal ideology of viewing men as the norm and women as deviant. Dobie (2002: 94) asserts that the feminists agree that this “social structure is reflected in religion, philosophy, economics, education- all aspects of culture, including literature.” He further shows that leading thinkers from Aristotle to Darwin reiterated that “women were lesser beings” and this type of comment is expressed by writers, theologians, and other public figures that disparage and degrade women. According to Dobie, the Greek ecclesiast John Chrysostom (cited in Dobie, 2002: 98) called women “a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil,” and Ecclesiasticus (a book of the Apocrypha) states, “All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman”. The Roman theologian Tertullian (cited in Dobie, 2002: 98) lectured women: “The judgment of God upon your sex endures today; and with it inevitably endures your position of criminal at the bar of justice. You are the gate way to the devil.” Even the Book of Genesis blames Eve for the loss of paradise. To Dobie, revered writers of later ages have been equally ungenerous in their descriptions of the nature of women. Alexander Pope (cited in Dobie, 2002: 98) asserted, “Most women have no character at all,” and John 4 Keats (cited in Dobie, 2002: 98) explained, “The opinion I have of the generality of women- who appear to me as children to whom I would rather give a sugar plum than my time, forms a barrier against matrimony which I rejoice in.” These stereotypes about women‟s personality abound in literature, including Igbo literature. The portrayal of gender, especially the female gender in literature is negative and this has been acknowledged by Kolawole (1997: 129), who contends that “most early African literary writers are men who logically present a world of male heroism and this trend continues because some male writers on the continent still maintain this attitude.” Chukwukere (2000: 122) strongly affirms that “it is striking that these stereotypes hardly present the male in a negative perspective as opposed to the female who is an available object and victim for the most ludicrous commentaries.” Udofot (2009) maintains that literary language ignores women and defines them as less significant than men and this out-right derogates the female gender. This negative presentation of women in literature is a result of the negative image of women in patriarchal society. Feminists believe that male writers demean women in their novels and portray them as a subordinate group and second sex. Consequently, the feminists seek to redress and rectify women‟s image by creating an enhanced status for women. Feminists also argue that women‟s writing about women will help to ameliorate sexism and the negative portrayal of women. Precisely, the problem is that women are not properly presented in male-authored works. However, since the emergence of female writers, it is evident that gender portrayal in Igbo works is presently asymmetrical. Consequently, the present study seeks to investigate how gender is portrayed in selected early and later male and female-authored Igbo novels. The study ascertains whether the early writers enhance one gender to the detriment of the other, or if 5 there is gender balance in their portrayal. The examination of how the later male and female writers in Igbo literature characterise gender in their novels will assist to infer whether the writers, especially the female writers, reconstruct negative portrayal of women in their novels or they still maintain the trend as the early male writers by portraying women negatively. 1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study The general aim of this study is to analyse gender portrayal in selected early and later post-war male and female-authored Igbo novels. The specific objectives are to: 1.
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