Women And Subjugation: An Evaluation Of Feminist Rhetoric In Selected Novels By Mary Karooro Okurut, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Unity Dow, Elieshi Lema And Kaleni Hiyalwa

ABSTRACT

This study is an examination of feminist rhetoric in selected novels by African women fiction writers namely The Official Wife by Mary Karooro Okurut, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Screaming of the Innocent by Unity Dow, Parched Earth by Elieshi Lema and Meekulu’s Children by Kaleni Hiyalwa. The focus was to evaluate women fiction writers’ perspectives on social, economic and political subjugation of women and how they employ persuasive tools in their writing to persuade the readers. The study was primarily a qualitative, desktop research where a total of five novels were purposefully selected and analysed. The analysis used Aristotelian proofs of persuasion and invitational rhetoric theories. The Aristotelian theory is used to show how the selected novels employ persuasive arguments in articulating the social, economic and political oppression of women. Invitational rhetoric theory assists in determining how the novels promote the idea of equality, immanent value and self-determination in dialogic contexts. This study contributes to the understanding of feminist rhetoric, and recognises the presence of women rhetors who in history, have been ignored.

Based on the findings of the selected novels, it is revealed that patriarchal settings are the reasons for women’s subjugation in different societies. Male dominated institutions make it challenging for women to make their contributions as they desire. It is shown that women characters in the selected novels are conscious of the oppression they undergo, but some allow it to advance due to economic reasons and fear of breaking cultural norms. Others are not deterred by societal conventions, but rather are strong challengers of patriarchy. Remarkably, the study found out that even as women are striving for self recognition, they are willing to work together with male counterparts.

The study further indicates that women employ persuasive techniques in articulating their plights. Women characters provide evidence to support the validity of the arguments made in voicing the injustice of patriarchal societies. The logical proofs presented evoke emotions when the audience learns the kind of hardships they face at the hands of their male counterparts. Furthermore, the study concludes that women characters in the selected novels adopt strategic agency to combat patriarchal settings that oppress and silence them and this makes their deportments credible, manifesting Aristotle’s proofs of persuasion. It has also been found that education seems to be the key to economic, political and social freedom to women and that

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without it some women tend to depend on their spouses and in return give them hegemonic power to subjugate them further. In addition, this study reveals that invitational rhetoric promotes equality, immanent value and self determination of both genders.

The study recommends that future studies use the same theoretical frameworks in combination with the reader-response theory to examine feminist rhetoric to determine how readers are impacted by novels. Future studies should be conducted to underscore the importance of employing invitational rhetoric in conversations to enhance equality, self-determination and immanent value of all participants in conversations.

Key words: feminism, rhetoric, patriarchy, subjugation, equality, economic, political, social, freedom, perspectives