Gendered Voices and Ideological ‎Communications: A Case from the Film Industry‎

Abstract

Gender is a social construct that finds expression in cultural and ‎ideological communicative practices. This research focuses on ‎gendered voices and ideological communications, drawing insights ‎from the film industry in Nigeria. The study adopts the triangulation ‎of critical discourse analysis, polyphony, and construction grammar ‎to appraise the instances of gendered voices in Tunde Kelani’s ‎Narrow Path, in order to tease out the underlying ideologies in the ‎emotioncy-driven communicative contexts. Two opposing ‎ideologies, namely, the patriarchalist and womanist dominate the ‎interactions of the characters. While the former was characterized by ‎the macho, parental, institutional, and communal voices, the latter ‎was orchestrated by the solidaristic and institutional voices. The ‎patriachalist ideals were both concretized through the same-gender ‎and other-gender personae, the womanist ideology was basically ‎enacted through same-gender persona. These were established ‎through gendered constructions propelled by: presupposition, ‎assertion, topic, and focus. High context society like the Yoruba ‎should provide equal space for both genders to express their ‎thoughts and partake in building a gender-unbiased society.