The Childless Woman As A Failure? A Literary Analysis Of The Contestation Of The Childless Woman In Three (3) African Tests

Abstract

This thesis explores how Flora Nwapa and Ayobami Adebayo construct marriage and represent the childless woman in Efuru, One is Enough and Stay With Me. The characters presented in the selected texts redefine marriage by confronting heterosexual norms and women’s socio-political subjectivities in the African context. The thesis, therefore, focuses on how the heroines in these texts catalyse events that (re)define their fate and the fate of other women in the texts. The thesis frames the selected texts as provocative and nonconforming texts that aim at reinterpreting and contesting the conventional idea that the childless married woman is synonymous with failure. In rereading these texts, the thesis examines how Nwapa and Adebayo explore the restoration of the dignity of the childless woman and the appreciation of her contribution to society. The study found that both Nwapa and Adebayo challenge and contest the cultural representation of the childless woman as a failure by constructing strong, fearless, financially independent, and successful women. The study also found that Adebayo shifts the burden of childlessness from the African woman to the African man by representing Akin as impotent. Furthermore, the study showed that Adebayo subtly proposes the deconstruction of oral narratives as the solution to a genuine African conjugal relationship.