PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY THROUGH LITERATURE: A STUDY OF SELECTED LITERARY WORKS

Literature, a mode of expression, plays significant roles in the social life of humanity. As a subject whose strength lies in the use of indirection and suggestion to express a concern, Literature has been known over the years for its ability to transfer values from generation to generation. Whether as drama, prose or poetry, literature communicates its thematic concerns through different forms. In this paper, we focus our attention on the traditions and cultural norms which militate against the girl child and the woman in the different African societies as exemplified in some selected literary texts. The woman is marginalized right from the home and her rights are infringed upon on a daily basis by the society. As modern as the human society claims to be in the 21st century, there are still instances of marginalization against the girl child and the woman. This has given rise to different forms of protest and cry out from the female folk. In the literary texts which are; The Road Somewhere and Pain in the Heart, by Chydy Njere and Eugenia Ekwesi respectively, the writers who are females have chosen their narratives as a medium through which they express their displeasure over the repressive cultures and different forms of maltreatment faced by the girl child and the woman in the society. We have adopted Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the tool of analysis to help us uncover the power dominance and oppressive ideology inherent in the texts. Keywords: Gender, Education, literature, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ideology, power