HOMOEROTIC DESIRE AND ANDROGYNOUS CHARACTERIZATION IN CHINELO OKPARANTA‟S UNDER THE UDALA TREES, JUDE DIBIA‟S WALKING WITH SHADOWS AND K. SELLO DUIKER‟S THE QUIET VIOLENCE OF DREAMS
HOMOEROTIC DESIRE AND ANDROGYNOUS CHARACTERIZATION IN CHINELO OKPARANTA‟S UNDER THE UDALA TREES, JUDE DIBIA‟S WALKING WITH SHADOWS AND K. SELLO DUIKER‟S THE QUIET VIOLENCE OF DREAMS
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Date
2020-03
Authors
YAKUBU, Eugene Shichet
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Abstract
The emergence of queer themes and characterization in modern literature has challenged the
traditional understanding of rigid sexuality by introducing genderqueer and androgynous
characters. This has opened the possibility of diversity in literary characterization and in
representing characters as either male or female. This dissertation, therefore examines the trope
of homosexuality in contemporary African fiction as a biological and natural form of sexuality
and in early African fiction as ―UnAfrican‖ and a western perversion. As a result of the fluidity
of characterization introduced into literary characterization by queer characters, this study
conceptualizes homosexuality as arising from the mental processes of psychosexual
development. It proceeds on the assumption that the trope of queerness is useful in understanding
the fluidity of gender roles and the processes through which characters choose their sexuality and
interprets queerness in the selected texts as neither a natural or biological category of sexuality
but as developed through psychosexual processes of sexual development. This study maintains
its arguments by understanding queerness from discourses in the field of Queer Studies and
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism that express the processes whereby sexual orientation is
developed. Freudian Psychoanalytic Literary theory will show that an unresolved oedipal conflict
can lead to an arrested development of normal sexuality. This study examines queerness and
androgynous characterization in Chinelo Okparanta‘s Under the Udala Trees, Jude Dibia‘s
Walking with Shadows and K. Sello Duiker‘s The Quiet Violence of Dreams in order to
deconstruct the authors‘ interpretations as pseudo-biological musings and to show that queerness
has a possible psychological interpretation and that people are not born into but rather choose
their sexuality. The study shows that even though queer characters are scarcely represented in
early African fiction, sociological evidence has proved the availability of queer characters in
Africa. This study also maintains that in a desperate bid to drive a queer notion into art and
literature, contemporary African writers are reconstructing queerness as a biological and natural
category of sexuality. The study of queerness proves to be a viable means of interrogating
Africa‘s heterosexual history, androgynous characterization, homophobia and identity.
Description
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER DEGREE IN ENGLISH
LITERATURE.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES,
FACULTY OF ARTS,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
HOMOEROTIC DESIRE,, ANDROGYNOUS CHARACTERIZATION,, CHINELO OKPARANTA‟S,, UDALA TREES,, JUDE DIBIA‟S WALKING,, SHADOWS,, K. SELLO DUIKER‟S,, QUIET VIOLENCE,, DREAMS.