The portrayal of women in power and politics in Chinua Achebe's a man of the people and anthills of the savannah
| dc.contributor.author | Muunda, Loide N. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-06-21T09:28:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-06-21T09:28:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.description | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of arts in English studies | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis analysed A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) by Chinua Achebe from a Stiwanism perspective. The study sought to explore Achebe’s ‘feminist ideological turn’ by analysing how women in power and politics are depicted in the two selected novels. The study also pursued an analysis of how education is used as a tool to transform the role of women in society as portrayed in the two selected novels. In addition, the study sought to analyse the motivating factors for women to take up powerful positions within the novels. This study was carried out from a qualitative approach point of view and it employed content analysis in the interpretation and analysis of the chosen novels. The study revealed that Achebe has portrayed women in power and politics in the two novels as highly educated, strong, fearless, rebellious, intelligent, political activists, conservative, respectful, having successful careers, persistent, not conceited, selfless, intimidating, business women running clothing empires, school heads of prestigious private schools, members of statutory boards, and dominating men in relationships. The study found out that Achebe used empowerment as tool to socially transform women by according them opportunities to not only question but also challenge the political systems of the corrupt governments within the two novels. The study also found out that education is a powerful tool that Achebe used to transform women’s roles in the society. As such, educated women are able to make informed decisions and fight for human rights. The study also revealed various motivating factors for women to take up powerful and prestigious positions within the two novels such as the level of education, exposure, career obligation, urge to persevere and the upbringing contextual. The findings further indicate that women in A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) have been socially transformed by participating in public and political affairs. The study concludes that the modern African women have new roles within the society as relative to the traditional roles of women. Just like men, women have independent rights and they can successfully take up any role within the society not on the basis of gender prejudice. The study recommends for future studies that there might be a need to consider using Critical Discourse Analysis as a theory for analysing the depiction of women in the same novels A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Further studies can also be carried out using Stiwanism as a guiding theory to analyse the portrayal of women in power and politics in other literary texts | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11070/2583 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Namibia | en_US |
| dc.subject | Anthills of the savannah | en_US |
| dc.subject | Chinua Achebe | en_US |
| dc.subject | Stiwanism perspective | en_US |
| dc.subject | Feminist ideological | en_US |
| dc.subject | Women in power and politics | en_US |
| dc.title | The portrayal of women in power and politics in Chinua Achebe's a man of the people and anthills of the savannah | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |