A Palimpsestic Reading of Female Identity in Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Peace Sorochi Longdet

doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.11

Abstract

This study examines female identity in the novel of Chimamanda N. Adichie using an eclectic model that combines African feminist theory and palimpsestic analogy. A critical reading of the text reveals that African women writers have a strong commitment towards the redefinition of female identity in literary texts. In terms of the major preoccupation of female writers in their works, it has been observed that Adichie is passionate about her projection of strong female characters alongside weak female characters that function under the traditional atmosphere. Adichie creates female characters that on the surface appear docile, timid, robot–like and passive, however through her dexterous master – craft she proceeds to deconstruct, such portraiture to allow the creation of another identity on the erased surface. This style, gives the female characters a multi-layered pattern similar to that of an erased writing on a piece of parchment-palimpsest. I argue that through this palimpsestic portraiture, Adichie advocates for other means of female assertion- education is a strong weapon for her female characters’ self-assertion and empowerment. The study, therefore, suggests that for objective reading and interpretation of Purple Hibiscus particularly as it relates to female characters critics should negotiate the ability to look at women’s work with fresher eye.

Highlights

African women writers are aware of their society’s unique history, tradition and ethical values
They interpret their unique experiences in their works in order to create a link between what was history and what they set to create through their writing in the present with a commitment to changing the perception of womanhood. Their commitment to creating a new perception of the African woman leads them to use the family unit as, a pointer. This awareness provides the backdrop for the study of the nature of female identity in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and for the investigation of the relationship of its palimpsestic nature
The term palimpsest originates from the Greek word ‘palimpsestos’ and it defined by several critics as a piece of parchment severally written over yet showing a superimposition within the fabric of the text, creating a text-in-between phenomenon

Summary

Introduction

African women writers are aware of their society’s unique history, tradition and ethical values. Their commitment to creating a new perception of the African woman leads them to use the family unit as, a pointer This awareness provides the backdrop for the study of the nature of female identity in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and for the investigation of the relationship of its palimpsestic nature. The concept according to Katin Berdint, was introduced into postcolonial discourse by linguistic critics, who described palimpsest as the act of erasing the indigenous culture by the colonial settlers to inscribe their own on the erased surface.[1] the process is incomplete as traces of the decimated culture interplays with the new This analogy is used metaphorically in this study to compare the act of erasing the absurd women’s image in male-authored texts in order to project what Molara-Ogundipe- Leslie calls “correction of these images of the African women in African” [2]. By undertaking to do a palimpsestic reading of Purple Hibiscus, this paper seeks to critically analyze the underlying meanings of Adichie’s projected submissive and subservient female characters and unravel the bold message Adichie advocates in the novel

The Novel

The Palimpsestic Identity of Kambili

The Character of Beatrice

Conclusion