Journeying out of silenced familial spaces in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple hibiscus
Date
2008-12-09T11:47:55Z
Authors
Ouma, Chrispher Ernest Werimo
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Abstract
This study explores the silencing of familial spaces in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
Purple Hibiscus. It probes into how the familial space is invested with religiosity: how
ritual and norm structure and silence familial spaces and how transcendence from these
spaces can be achieved through elements of laughter, music and sexuality. The study uses
post-colonial theories, concepts of familial ideology and familial theory to read the text.
The introductory chapter provides a politico-historical background of the text, then a
literary historiography of how the familial trope has been used in African literature with
special focus on Achebe. The chapter also outlines the theoretical framework of the study
while anticipating the issues to be dealt with. Chapter two focuses on how the familial
space is invested with religious rituals and how these silence the familial space. Chapter
three examines how augmentation out of the silenced familial spaces works through
elements of laughter, sexuality and music. Chapter four investigates the family as a
portrait of the state and most significantly how these two institutions are portrayed to be
in a complex relationship. The study’s conclusion is that the family can be used as an
alternative site for discourses of marginality and can give a nuanced critique of the postcolony.
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Keywords
familial space, Purple Hibiscus, religious rituals, African literature, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie