Papers by Sandra Nwokocha
Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 2024
Feminist academia has extensively researched various topics but has given limited emphasis to wom... more Feminist academia has extensively researched various topics but has given limited emphasis to women's reproduction, especially concerning assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). This research study aims to explore the effects of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) on human reproduction and to examine how these technologies intersect with gender, race, class, and the medicalisation of the body. A detailed examination of medical equipment, including ultrasonography, laparoscopy, the foetal stethoscope, and diethylstilbesterol (DES), indicates that while these tools aid in pregnancy management, they can also pose health risks to women. A feminist perspective views ARTs not only as addressing infertility but also as exploiting women. The discovery illustrates the interconnectedness of race and class in the utilisation of ARTs, namely how these devices tend to increase reproduction in Western nations but primarily promote sterilisation in developing countries. It is imperative to underscore the necessity of rigorous testing of these technologies before their implementation on women to minimise potential health hazards. Despite undergoing testing, ARTs can still result in adverse effects, making it challenging to determine their overall benefits for women's bodies.
Scholarship on twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored novels has long been dominated by wo... more Scholarship on twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored novels has long been dominated by womanist readings, regardless of the fact that these modern narratives represent feminism in strong terms. The readings often subsume subversive femininity within non-aggressive liberation, resulting in an insufficient narrative of the intricacies of the novels of the period. This thesis challenges such representations by proposing subversion as the hallmark of twenty- first century Nigerian female-authored novels through a textual analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come and Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow. Through a gynocentric approach, the analysis of the novels foregrounds a feminist view of domination, resistance and solidarity, espousing the premise that the contemporary heroines are understandably rebellious in asserting female agency. The thesis draws three fundamental conclusions: that the feminist paradigm is useful to the comprehension of the nuances of twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored novels, that dissidence is a remarkable feature of contemporary texts, and that this revolutionary tendency contrasts with the conservative attitudes of the previous epoch.
Boydell & Brewer eBooks, Nov 20, 2020
The feminist notion of autonomy, a self-governing ability, has been almost absent from moral phil... more The feminist notion of autonomy, a self-governing ability, has been almost absent from moral philosophy until recently. The absence suggests that the ethical concerns of men, such as universality and neutrality, maintain a dominant position in shaping traditional ethics, resulting in the allegorical idea of an atomistic individual who is distanced from the social associations in which real agents are entrenched. This unilateral stance is limiting in comprehending other dimensions of moral reasoning, particularly feminine notions of caring and issues of private life that acknowledge independence and interdependence by valuing the agent who opts for social relationships. Concentrating on Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006), this essay challenges such uncritical moral perception and/or readings of contemporary Nigerian (and by extension African) women’s texts to which while centring on postcoloniality with its associated moral and environmental decadence undermine the intricacies surrounding the independence of the fictional figures in such works.
Journal of the African Literature Association
Coalition politics is gaining critical attention across the social sciences, and in feminist stud... more Coalition politics is gaining critical attention across the social sciences, and in feminist studies more precisely, since it promises a feasible solution to social issues for scholars concerned with social justice. Such political alliances with an emphasis on the feminist concept of sisterhood have proved a gateway to female freedom. However, while the merit of sisterhood is recognized mostly in terms of women in conflict with male tyranny, the feminist political agenda advanced through empowering women as best friends, supporters, and benefactors is less understood. Focusing on Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come (2005), this paper advances intimate and political associations as proactive ways through which feminist partnership-building is attained, stressing women in rapport with themselves rather than in struggle with men as the hallmark of feminist desire, purpose, and politics.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2019
This article examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s exciting novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) not s... more This article examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s exciting novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) not so much for the ways in which it reproduces the unsettling effects of the Biafran War but for how it draws attention to the diversity of sexual behaviours and identities in Africa as well as the grittiness of being human in a frightening war-ridden zone. This article argues for the ways in which Adichie emphasizes the humanity of her female characters through their claims to sexual freedom, even in the context of overwhelming civil unrest. By bringing sexuality into the heart of a Biafran War narrative, Adichie is read as a progressive feminist writer who advances a worldview that allows new ways of thinking about sex through the normalization of sexual behaviours that have been construed as unAfrican. In this way, Half of a Yellow Sun forms a counter-narrative to critical approaches that view female sexual agency as something inherently Western.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2017
Focusing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s critically acclaimed Purple Hibiscus (2003), this article ... more Focusing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s critically acclaimed Purple Hibiscus (2003), this article argues that subversion, an aggressive performance that aimed at overthrowing and displacing patriarchal institutions which initially impact on the choices and activities of the oppressed, is the hallmark of the fictional figures’ responses to oppression. The essay contends that such forceful reactions to repression expand our understanding of twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored narratives. This argument I contrast with earlier critical readings, observing that while critics are eager to expose and endorse a female presence in the text, the readings often undermine its revolutionary suggestions. Through a radical feminist approach, my analysis of the novel highlights the heroines in order to demonstrate subversive behaviours in their drive to establish female agency, and notes such defiance to be necessary considering their repressive milieu. In doing so, I conclude with the not...
The Literary Encyclopedia Exploring Literature, History, and Culture, 2019
Sefi Atta is a Nigerian author and playwright. Born in 1964 in Lagos to a family of five children... more Sefi Atta is a Nigerian author and playwright. Born in 1964 in Lagos to a family of five children, she was raised by her mother, Iyabo Atta, after the death of her father, Abdul-Aziz Atta. Educated in Nigeria, England and the United States, Atta attended Queen’s College, Lagos, and Millfield School, England. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England and as a Certified Public Accountant in the United States, having been awarded a BA from the University of Birmingham in 1985, then an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, in 2001. She currently lives in Mississippi with her husband Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and their daughter, Temi. Atta has published four novels to date: Everything Good Will Come (2004), Swallow (2010), A Bit of Difference (2012), and The Bead Collector (2018). Atta’s other publications include News from Home: Short Stories (2010) and Selected Plays (2018). Her works have earned literary awards including the Red Hen Press Story Award in 2003, the Pen International David TK Wong Prize in 2005, the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2006 and the Noma Award for publishing in Africa in 2009.
Boydell & Brewer, 2020
The feminist notion of autonomy, a self-governing ability, has been almost absent from moral phil... more The feminist notion of autonomy, a self-governing ability, has been almost absent from moral philosophy until recently. The absence suggests that the ethical concerns of men, such as universality and neutrality, maintain a dominant position in shaping traditional ethics, resulting in the allegorical idea of an atomistic individual who is distanced from the social associations in which real agents are entrenched. This unilateral stance is limiting in comprehending other dimensions of moral reasoning, particularly feminine notions of caring and issues of private life that acknowledge independence and interdependence by valuing the agent who opts for social relationships. Concentrating on Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006), this essay challenges such uncritical moral perception and/or readings of contemporary Nigerian (and by extension African) women’s texts to which while centring on postcoloniality with its associated moral and environmental decadence undermine the intricacies surrounding the independence of the fictional figures in such works.
Coalition politics is gaining critical attention across the social sciences, and in feminist stud... more Coalition politics is gaining critical attention across the social sciences, and in feminist studies more precisely, since it promises a feasible solution to social issues for scholars concerned with social justice. Such political alliances with an emphasis on the feminist concept of sisterhood have proved a gateway to female freedom. However, while the merit of sisterhood is recognized mostly in terms of women in conflict with male tyranny, the feminist political agenda advanced through empowering women as best friends, supporters, and benefactors is less understood. Focusing on Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come (2005), this paper advances intimate and political associations as proactive ways through which feminist partnership-building is attained, stressing women in rapport with themselves rather than in struggle with men as the hallmark of feminist desire, purpose, and politics.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2022
This article examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's exciting novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) not s... more This article examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's exciting novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) not so much for the ways in which it reproduces the unsettling effects of the Biafran War but for how it draws attention to the diversity of sexual behaviours and identities in Africa as well as the grittiness of being human in a frightening war-ridden zone. This article argues for the ways in which Adichie emphasizes the humanity of her female characters through their claims to sexual freedom, even in the context of overwhelming civil unrest. By bringing sexuality into the heart of a Biafran War narrative, Adichie is read as a progressive feminist writer who advances a worldview that allows new ways of thinking about sex through the normalization of sexual behaviours that have been construed as unAfrican. In this way, Half of a Yellow Sun forms a counter-narrative to critical approaches that view female sexual agency as something inherently Western.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2019
Focusing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's critically acclaimed Purple Hibiscus (2003), this article ... more Focusing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's critically acclaimed Purple Hibiscus (2003), this article argues that subversion, an aggressive performance that aimed at overthrowing and displacing patriarchal institutions which initially impact on the choices and activities of the oppressed, is the hallmark of the fictional figures' responses to oppression. The essay contends that such forceful reactions to repression expand our understanding of twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored narratives. This argument I contrast with earlier critical readings, observing that while critics are eager to expose and endorse a female presence in the text, the readings often undermine its revolutionary suggestions. Through a radical feminist approach, my analysis of the novel highlights the heroines in order to demonstrate subversive behaviours in their drive to establish female agency, and notes such defiance to be necessary considering their repressive milieu. In doing so, I conclude with the notion that dissidence is a remarkable feature of the novel and that the radical feminist paradigm is useful in widening awareness of this groundbreaking tenor.
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Papers by Sandra Nwokocha