Female Assertion as an Antidote to Male Dominance: Mother Archetypes in Achebe’s Novels—Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, and A Man of the People
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Date
2019-04
Authors
Muneeni, Jeremiah Mutuku
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Editon Consortium Publishing
Abstract
There has been an intense debate with regards to Chinua Achebe’s (mis)representation of women in his
creative works, especially his first four novels. Some scholars have argued that Achebe is a patriarchal writer
who has relegated women to the periphery. Nevertheless, a few have read subtle nuances of gender balance in
his works. This paper is a continuation of this debate. Specifically, it argues that Achebe has created Mother
Archetypes in his novels and if the same is not recognized, he will continue to be demonized as a gender
insensitive writer. The unit of analysis is three of the five Achebe’s novels namely: Things Fall Apart,No Longer at
Ease, and A Man of the People. The paper interrogates the aforementioned novels within the framework of
archetypal criticism, with the aim of unearthing and examining Mother Archetypes inherent in them. The paper
identifies religion, education, and justice as the spheres of life in which Achebe has created, empowered and
elevated Mother Archetypes to be at par with their male counterparts. However, owing to the breadth of the
subject, the paper dwells on education. The paper concludes that creation of empowered Mother Archetypes in
Achebe’s novels is a symbolic relay in which women characters hand in the symbolic empowerment baton to
the next woman in the next novel until the last one where the creation of a woman major character, Beatrice,
wins the race against male dominance.
Description
A Research Article in the Editon Consortium Journal of Literature and Linguistic Studies (ECJLLS)
Keywords
Mother archetypes, Achebe, Antidote, Male dominance
Citation
Muneeni, J.M. (2019). Female assertion as an antidote to male dominance: mother archetypes in Achebe’s novels—things fall apart, no longer at ease, and a man of the people. Editon Cons. J. Lit. Linguist. Stud. 1(1), 13-19.