Language, Gender and Power in Chinua Achebe’s—There Was a Country and Chimamanda Adiche’s—Half of a Yellow Sun

Lawal M Olusola

doi:10.22158/grhe.v2n2p82

Abstract

<em>The interconectivity of language in the analysis of ideological schemas of gender and power is remarkable. In every piece of texts, language is employed as an expression of ideology. Hence, there is no linguistic expression that is ideologically empty. Language is inspirable from the gender and power preoccupations of Chinua Achebe’s There Was a Country and Chimamanda Adiche’s Half of a Yellow Sun. In this paper, it is made succinct that both Achebe and Adichie deploy their English linguistic prowess with their traditional Igbo language colorations as an expression of power and gender discourses. Indeed, while it is deduced that Achebe, through the use of rhetorical and proverbial expressions, pursued a somewhat patriarchal gender and power ideological inclination in his memoir; Adichie, in her use of sublime language, exhibited her feminine gender belief in a rather subtle manner. Evidently, the two authors’ use of the English language with a heavy Igbo language influence is an index to the fact that language, apart from being a powerful means of expression of a writer’s ideological idiosyncrasy, is a source of power on its own; an instrument which both Achebe and Adichie deployed to show their different gender inclinations and power discourses in the selected texts.</em>

Highlights

Language is pivotal to every human activity; and as gender relation is power relation (Oloruntoba, 2009), language anchors both gender and power
This paper examines Achebe’s There Was a Country and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun as they relate to the whole issues of language, gender and power
The main issue in this paper is to establish the link between language, gender and power discourses employed in the texts under study and the messages and ideologies canvassed in them

Summary

Introduction

Language is pivotal to every human activity; and as gender relation is power relation (Oloruntoba, 2009), language anchors both gender and power. Our world is understood through the mode of language When it comes to the discourse of language use in relation to gender and power, human beings become enigmas. The understanding of the use of language to express, for example, an ideological discourse like gender gives human being an expression of power. Note Ashcroft et al, is to understand it, know it and to have control over it What this implies is that every human engagement, including gender and power relations, involves language. Because literature, according to Ngugi (1972), does not develop in vacuum, it is given impetus, shape, direction and even area of concern by social, political and economic forces in a particular society This implies that literature is intertwined with all facets of gender and power relations. What are the relationships among language, gender and power in the texts of the two authors? In their use of language and representation of gender and power, whose value are the two authors reinforcing or undermining? Do the writers employ language to subvert the patriarchal hegemony or to reinforce it?

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Conclusion