Immigration and Women’s Self-Identity in Selected Novels of Adichie, Bulawayo and Baingana
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Date
2020-06
Authors
Catherine Nyawira, Mwai
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This thesis investigates immigration and women’s self-identity in selected novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, NoViolet Bulawayo and Baingana. Significant in African diasporic literature is the effect of immigration on women’s self-identity. The study analyses African women immigrant characters in Adichie’s Americanah, Bulawayo’s We Need New Names and Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish to establish how their immigration to the USA affects their self-identity and their interactions with others in the society. The research employs the postcolonial concept of hybridity. It uses comparative textual analysis of the three novels and relies on other scholarly works to aid in analysis and interpretation of the primary data. The three writers have bearing on their representation of women characters who emigrate from Africa to the USA and whose movements oscillate between the two spaces. Selection of the three novels is done on basis of presence of common features such as immigration of African women characters to the USA and their identity transformation. The study examined identity transformation among African women characters who interact with American diasporic space, survival tactics they employ while in the USA, as well as how post-immigration women characters relate with both their hostland and homeland. The study concludes that there is a remarkable difference between the representation of African women characters’ self-identity before and after immigration to the USA. It argues that several factors determine adoption or rejection of new self-identity. It also finds that the altered self-identity of African diasporic women in the USA affects the way they interact with both American society and their society of origin. The study recommends further research on the same topic using different novels to establish whether other diasporic texts agree with its findings. It also recommends further study on self-identity of male immigrants, as well as the insights of male African writers. Further study on the three texts may be done in line with tenets of feminism theory to establish the influence of immigration on African women characters’ femininity.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Degree of Master of Arts of Kenyatta University, June 2020
Keywords
Immigration, Women’s Self-Identity, Selected Novels, Adichie, Bulawayo, Baingana