MST-Department of Literature

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Browsing MST-Department of Literature by Subject "African Literary Works"

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    The Dilemma of Lesbian Characters in Settings of Heterosexual Hegemony in Selected African Literary Works
    (kenyatta university, 2023) Gitahi, Beth Wairimu; Murimi Gaita; Kariuki Banda
    This study investigates the dilemma of lesbian characters in settings of heterosexual hegemony in selected African prose works. The study is grounded on the premise that literature by African writers is a mouthpiece to communicate the pain and struggles of homosexuals in trying to escape from the jaws of living in a closet in highly homophobic countries. The objectives guiding the research will examine how lesbian voices have been represented in selected African prose works, interrogate the socio-cultural rejoinders to lesbianism in African fiction and investigate possible social visions of lesbianism in the selected African prose works. The research employs queer theory to analyze the selected African prose works. Queer theory is as postulated by Judith Butler, Gloria Anzaldua, and Michel Foucault among others. The theoretical framework aims at redefining the concept of sexuality. This study employs textual analysis as the methodology for collecting, organizing, interpreting and analyzing data on the dilemma of lesbian characters in settings of heterosexual hegemony in selected African prose works. The research has brought to the fore repressed and empowered voices of the lesbians in the selected works aiming at voicing struggles of lesbians in a heteronormative society. However, the society in the selected African texts imposes marriage, religion and structural violence as a means of ‘curing’ and silencing lesbians. Nonetheless, a possible social vision is alluded to in the texts under study as stringent heteronormative adherents accept lesbian family members and their sexuality. The analysis has thus articulated how heterosexual hegemony hinders lesbianism from expression. It is recommended that there is need for further studies in assessing the nexus between the representation of lesbian voices in Western and African societies in prose works.