Seeing Motherhood through the Lenses of Gendered Society in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen

Abstract

Mothering and motherhood are two different concepts. Motherhood is glorified in the world history whereas mothering is generally ignored . Motherhood is imposed upon women by the society convincing her to believe in its valour but during the whole process of motherhood, the challenges of mothering are never counted Mothering. Motherhood is an institution defined by hegemonic groups to exert power on women. Motherhood, a monolithic term, emphasizes on the process of socialization of the future generation only by mother. During this process her own subjectivity and personal experiences are ignored and she is degraded to mere an object for catering the needs of her children. Her identity is not what she asserts but her identity is perceived as a mother. Buchi Emecheta, an eminent womanist writer has raised the issue of challenging motherhood in her novel Second Class Citizen. My article aims to analyze the novel on the grounds of conceptualized motherhood and its impact on the self-identity of the protagonist who single handedly raises her children.