GENDER AND POWER IN UBESIE’S NOVELS A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT

Gender studies is pervasive as it permeates all human endeavour. It is applicable to diverse areas of study such as literature, sociology, education and philosophy. This study, therefore, investigates the novels of Tony Ubesie with a view to giving insight on the representation of male and female characters’ gender identities, manifestation of power and dominance and how their  representation reflect  gender  ideologies. It  also  looks at  the  role  of discourse  in  the construction of gender identities. The study adopts Van Dijk’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis as its theoretical framework to scrutinize actions of characters in the novels in relation to their manifestation of power and dominance. From the findings, male characters are depicted as strong, fearless, benevolent and superior. Female characters manifest identities such as incompleteness, protective, caring and seductive. Neuter identities such as being materialistic, mercurial, promiscuous and domineering are also identified. It is found out that in the case of the neuter identities, one gender tends to have an upper hand than the other in the portrayal of such particular identity. Using the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study discovers that strategies such as intrigue, manipulative statements, threat, and series of questioning are avenues through which the dominant groups control the minds of the dominated group. The dominated group in return tries to resist such dominance through measures such as intrigue, exile, deception and telling lies. The study further observes that the female characters that rose to power in the narratives abused such power; and gender stereotypes are reinforced by the manifestation of a patriarchal ideology where power rests majorly on the male gender. The conclusion from the findings is that power and dominance in Ubesie’s novels are not static, but to a large extent, the male characters are portrayed to be more powerful and domineering than their female counterparts.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background to the study

Gender is as old as man. It is highly embedded in every sphere of human endeavour, especially in conversations. Humans, through their desires, beliefs and actions represent gender, and, its existence in society. Gender refers to different socio-cultural constructed roles, attributes, privileges, responsibilities and expectations of the individuals in society. The notion of gender presents the  male  and  female  species as different  from each other.  In the  human society, individuals  are  assigned  to  acceptable  roles  within  the  particular  gender  framework.  The assigning of gender role to the individual members of society makes it impossible for man to move through life in a non gendered way. Also, it is impossible for man not to behave in a way that elicits gendered behaviours and attributes. Gender is indispensible, thus, something we cannot run away from because it is a way through which societies are ordered, with each society having its own system of ordering different from the other. This means that gender is a key component of human identity and it is geographical.

Human identities which include voice pitch; females tend to have soft voices than the males, body image and structure; males tend to be broad-shouldered, muscular and physically vigorous than the females among others. These attributes make the males to look and communicate  differently  from  the  females.  Males  are  often  portrayed  as  brave,  reserve, confident, bold, dauntless, lionhearted and rational unlike the females that are read as weak, shy, straightforward, submissive, emotional and irrational. Again, the males are viewed to be more dominant than the females who are deviant and recessive. It is also worthy of note to state that

the need of one gender differs from place to place, time to time, depending on how the particular society defines the need.

Furthermore, literature concerns itself with an artistic documentation and dissemination of the whole range of human, life, identities and roles in life. Using literature as an imaginative work of art, the literary artist mirrors societal beliefs and norms. In this direction, the artist tends to symbolise cultural notions of gender as an aspect of his artistic creations and this is where he creatively uses language. Language is an essential tool in literature because it is the medium through which the  literary artist  communicates his objectives for a better society.  Through language, words are manipulated to create humour, pun and artistic beauty; images are created; suspense and intrigues are also imbued on the readers. In other words, language helps the literary artist to enact life.

In essence, literature portrays life and society to tell stories, which can be fictitious or non fictitious. This leaves the artist at the liberal use of imaginations to create stories alongside characters, who act out his innermost thoughts or pass across his message. Characters are persons represented in a narrative work, who can be interpreted to possess particular morals, intellectual and  emotional qualities  by what  they say,  what they do  and  what  others say about them. Characterisation reveals a character’s identifying traits such as his morals, qualities and characteristics. It is worthy to note that the ways characters are portrayed in a story is of great essence owing to the fact that the traits associated with a particular character becomes  identity or role generalisations afterwards and such a character will henceforth be seen from that specified angle. For example, the portrayal of a male character as a fearless, gallant, reserve, confident and rational being while the female character is seen as a weak, communicative, shy, submissive, poignant, and an irrational being. All these portrayals form the notion of gender attributes. It is

against the foregoing background that this study investigates how the discourses in the novels of Tony Ubesie conform to the view that discourse is the representation of the discursively formed notions of gender. This research also takes a cursory look at the theoretical and ideological propositions concerning gender as identified in the novels. Hinging on the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study x-rays how power, dominance and inequality are communicated through literary discourse, and the discursive measures the author of the novels has taken to construct gender in the male and female characters respectively.

1.2      Statement of problem

The society creates axes of division such as gender, race, ethnicity, class and sect, which become axes of power and hence, axis of inequality. Ikeokwu (2008:50) asserts that socio- biology identifies from birth, one’s individual make-up as to whether being a male or a female. Thus, through social constructions based on the biological characteristics, humans in society are accorded with roles which help them to form their individual identities. This is with regard to one being viewed as masculine or feminine and/or male or female. Also, the assignment of a particular role or identity to a particular gender buttresses the above assertion. In reference to this, individuals in the society get accorded with the captions they placed on themselves or by others such as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’, ‘male’ or ‘female’. For Shaikh and  Khan (2012:157), those assigned superior roles and superior identities are able to gain dominance over others and those who are given weaker identities are left behind in the struggle for power and are subordinated by those who wield power.

In the Igbo society, there are expected modes of behaviour required of each member of the society which have constructed the belief that men and women act and behave differently to images of masculinity and  femininity.  These Igbo  expressions ‘Ị  bụ  nwaanyị?’(Are you  a

female?) or ‘Ị bụ nwoke?’(Are you a male?) capture the idea of genders behaving as males or females, respectively. Based on the foregoing, the question now is how literature, especially the novel, showcases and constructs gender differences in the Igbo society? Thus, the need to carry out an in-depth study to examine how male and female gender identities are represented in the novels selected for the study.

Literature in itself is life. It can be referred to as that which mirrors man’s life. Igbo literary artists mirror Igbo people’s lifetime and happenings which are evident in Igbo literature. Happenings in Igbo literature relate to social, religious, political and economic crises. These crises re-order the stream of orderliness in the society thereby changing the socio-biological or socio-cultural construct of gender. With this in mind, what happens when there is disorderliness in the socio-culturally expectations of individuals in the society becomes a problem. There is also the need to find out if gender in such a situation still remains fixed or dynamic.

Also, expressions, feelings, power and emotions are communicated through language. However, the socio-cultural demands on the individuals in the society are communicated in the course of discourse. Literature, which is an enactment or re-enactment of life uses characterisations to mirror gender identities using language. Through the use of language, which is an essential and central tool in literary communication, the need to know how the characters in novels communicate power to show dominance, inequality and control, also form the problem for the study. The problems highlighted above necessitated the study and will be handled through a study of how gender and power are represented using main characters in the six novels of Tony Uchenna Ubesie.

1.3      Objectives of study

Generally, the study seeks to study gender and its construction as it relates to the actions of characters in the novels of Tony Ubesie using the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis. Specifically, the objectives of this study include the following:

i.          to examine how male and female gender identities are represented in the novels of

Ubesie;

ii.        to observe and know how power and dominance are manifested in the novels of

Ubesie;

iii.       to identify the various ways the novels of Ubesie challenge gender stereotype in  Igbo society; and

iv.        to investigate the role of discourse in the construction of gender identities in the novels of Ubesie.

1.4      Research questions

In order to actualise the objectives of the study, the following research questions are formulated as guide:

i.            To what extent can the male and female gender identities be represented in form of characters in the novels of Ubesie?

ii.            In what ways are power and dominance manifested in the novels under investigation?

iii.            What ways can be used to challenge gender stereotype in Igbo society using Ubesie’s novels?

iv.            In what way does discourse play a role in the construction of gender identities in the novels under examination?

1.5      Scope of study

The study focuses on Igbo literature in general and contemporary Igbo novel in particular at  the  background  of  gender  construction/perception in  relation  to  power,  dominance  and language in the Igbo society. It will be a herculean task for a study of this nature to cover all the Igbo novels with a view to examining how gender is constructed in Igbo literature in general and the novel in particular. Therefore, the researcher restricts the study to how gender identities are constructed and represented in the characterisation of characters as manifested in the novels of Tony Ubesie. Also, the study is confined to how discourse can be used in communicating gender and different ways through which power is manifested in the texts. However, references will be made to other  materials/sources relevant  to the study where and when exigent  in order to actualise the purpose of the study. The novels studied include:

i.          Isi Akwụ Dara N’Ala (1973), Ibadan: Oxford University Press.

ii.        Ụkwa Ruo Oge Ya Ọ Daa (1973), Ibadan: Oxford University Press. iii.       Mmiri Ọkụ E Ji Egbu Mbe (1974), Ikeja: Longman Publishers.

iv.        Ụkpaka Mịịrị Onye Ụbịam (1975), Enugu: Nwamife Publishers. v.         Ụkpana Okpoko Buuru (1975), Ibadan: Oxford University Press. vi.        Jụọ Obinna (1977), Ibadan: Oxford University Press.

1.6      Significance of study

Theoretically,  this  work  seeks  to  contribute  to  knowledge  in  the  field  of  African literature, especially Igbo literature, language and linguistics. Despite the fact that there are few works on gender and characterisation as it relates to Igbo literature, this study helps to reduce the dearth of literature in the areas of lack mentioned above. It also contributes to the Igbo as well as African perception of gender and construction in literary texts.

Also, since this study explores how gender identities are constructed in the novels of Ubesie, it enlightens people on gender identities as represented in the novels. It also exposes how actions in the novels challenge gender stereotype in the Igbo society. Furthermore, it helps in identifying how discourse can be used in the communication of power, abuse, mind control, manipulation and inequality.

The findings of this research work will stimulate research interests by future researchers and scholars into other Igbo literary genres in order to lend credence to how gender is portrayed. Aside being an instrumentum laboris, studies of this kind will be a guide to literature, linguistics and language researchers who may wish to study gender construction and portrayal in the Igbo language and literature.

1.7      Research methodology

This section deals with the procedure used in collecting and analysing data for the study. The methodology adopted in this research work will give plausible answers to the research questions posed in 1.4 section of this work.

1.7.1   Method of data collection

Appraisal tools were the major sources of data collection for this study. The researcher involved himself in intensive and critical reading of the novels of Tony Ubesie which enabled us to collect information about various characters, facts and points relevant to the study. Also, extensive use was made of electronic and university libraries for information on gender in order to enrich the researcher’s knowledge of literature in relation to the topic under discussion.

1.7.2   Method of data analysis

The data collected were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Critical discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary approach to textual study that aims to explicate abuses of power promoted by spoken and written texts. CDA analyses linguistic details in the light of the larger social and political contexts in which texts circulate. CDA is mainly concerned with analysing  overt  or  covert  structural relationships of  dominance,  discrimination,  power  and control when these are manifested in language. In other words, CDA is used to investigate critically, social inequality as it is expressed, constituted, and legitimised by language use. In terms of power, CDA interrogates the construction of gender as attributed to unequal values in a patriarchal system. In the area of language, CDA analyses language use of those who exercise power which brings about unevenness in social relations. Using the excerpts that manifest the idiosyncratic behaviours of characters and their gender, power and  language display in the novels,  the  study will  examine  their  actions  to  manifest  the  notions  of Critical  Discourse Analysis. This will enable the researcher to arrive at the realisations of the objectives of this present study.

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