Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option

Taking advantage of women in most modern legal contexts is illegal. The unwelcome sexual advances have often been accompanied with violence of differing degrees. Such advantages from sexual abuse or sexual assault into forced marriages and to mild transgressions that include simple teasing, offhand...

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Main Authors: Alkali, Muhammad, Talif, Rosli, Mohd Jan, Jariah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: International Institute for Science, Technology & Education 2013
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/1/Violence%20and%20sexual%20harassment%20in%20Nigerian%20novels%20the%20nego-feminist%20option.pdf
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author Alkali, Muhammad
Talif, Rosli
Mohd Jan, Jariah
author_facet Alkali, Muhammad
Talif, Rosli
Mohd Jan, Jariah
author_sort Alkali, Muhammad
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Taking advantage of women in most modern legal contexts is illegal. The unwelcome sexual advances have often been accompanied with violence of differing degrees. Such advantages from sexual abuse or sexual assault into forced marriages and to mild transgressions that include simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents in the life cycle of a female such as demonstrated in Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price (1976) forcefully calls attention to how they should be remedied. In the village of Ibuza, harassment is so frequent and severe that it creates a hostile and offensive environment for budding girls of marriage age – and a question shoots: what is the way out for novelists in deconstructing the life of such young girls as Aku-nna, the lead female character? While Emecheta takes the option of a strong backlash on the male class, new female writers like Ify Osammor in her The Triumph of Water Lily (1996) have made feminism to evolve by certainly bringing to disrepute the oddity of the male but in an amiable way that would appear to yield better results. This option of Nego-feminism charges both sexes to be willing-partners in progress. The option speaks in the monologic voice of unquestioned authority, determined by experience, knowledge and practice. Its dialogic (competing) voices speak in new official language and new official thought. In short, where the arrant feminism is a closed gender genre reflective of what has already occurred, Nego-feminism is open — to the present and the future. As such, the novel is almost by definition a progressive genre, which Osammor uses the different expectations that society holds for gender roles to twist the tragic situation of The Triumph of Water Lily into a tighter knot than radical events would otherwise permit.
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spelling upm-278782016-06-20T02:45:22Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/ Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option Alkali, Muhammad Talif, Rosli Mohd Jan, Jariah Taking advantage of women in most modern legal contexts is illegal. The unwelcome sexual advances have often been accompanied with violence of differing degrees. Such advantages from sexual abuse or sexual assault into forced marriages and to mild transgressions that include simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents in the life cycle of a female such as demonstrated in Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price (1976) forcefully calls attention to how they should be remedied. In the village of Ibuza, harassment is so frequent and severe that it creates a hostile and offensive environment for budding girls of marriage age – and a question shoots: what is the way out for novelists in deconstructing the life of such young girls as Aku-nna, the lead female character? While Emecheta takes the option of a strong backlash on the male class, new female writers like Ify Osammor in her The Triumph of Water Lily (1996) have made feminism to evolve by certainly bringing to disrepute the oddity of the male but in an amiable way that would appear to yield better results. This option of Nego-feminism charges both sexes to be willing-partners in progress. The option speaks in the monologic voice of unquestioned authority, determined by experience, knowledge and practice. Its dialogic (competing) voices speak in new official language and new official thought. In short, where the arrant feminism is a closed gender genre reflective of what has already occurred, Nego-feminism is open — to the present and the future. As such, the novel is almost by definition a progressive genre, which Osammor uses the different expectations that society holds for gender roles to twist the tragic situation of The Triumph of Water Lily into a tighter knot than radical events would otherwise permit. International Institute for Science, Technology & Education 2013 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/1/Violence%20and%20sexual%20harassment%20in%20Nigerian%20novels%20the%20nego-feminist%20option.pdf Alkali, Muhammad and Talif, Rosli and Mohd Jan, Jariah (2013) Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 3 (9). pp. 10-14. ISSN 2224-5766; ESSN: 2225-0484 http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/RHSS/article/view/6307
spellingShingle Alkali, Muhammad
Talif, Rosli
Mohd Jan, Jariah
Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title_full Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title_fullStr Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title_full_unstemmed Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title_short Violence and sexual harassment in Nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
title_sort violence and sexual harassment in nigerian novels: the nego-feminist option
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/27878/1/Violence%20and%20sexual%20harassment%20in%20Nigerian%20novels%20the%20nego-feminist%20option.pdf