A Deconstructive Reading of the Nigerian Subaltern in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn

• Published in: IBAD Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol. 5; no. 8; pp. 308 - 318
• Main Author: Akbay, Yakut
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hayrullah Kahya 18.12.2020
• Subjects: Din Bilimleri; Edebiyat; Eğitim Bilimleri; Felsefe & Psikoloji & Sosyoloji; İdari Bilimler; İktisat & İşletme & Finans; Siyasal Bilimler; Tarih; Uluslararası İlişkiler; İstanbul; Türkiye; Alkali; Subaltern; Kültür; Alt Sınıf; Différance; African Feminism; Culture; Afrika Feminizmi
• ISSN: 2687-2811; 2536-4642; 2687-2811; 2536-4642
• DOI: 10.21733/ibad.744613

Nowadays African women are taking an active role in the development of national literature both at home and abroad. However, the advent of female writers to literary arena was not a sudden event. After decolonisation, African literary sphere was heavily male dominated. Hence, the portrayal of the African woman was based upon the misrepresented image predetermined by the norms of patriarchal society. The emergence of women’s writing in Africa was inescapable and necessary to resist and reconstruct meanings of womanhood created by male writers. The purpose of the present paper is to defamiliarize Spivak’s subaltern as a female subject within the context of the Nigerian culture in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn (1984). It is argued that as opposed to Spivak’s subaltern, the Nigerian subaltern can speak up for herself in the male-dominated society. African feminism is applied as a vernacular criticism to scrutinize meanings attributed to womanhood in the Nigerian culture. Derrida’s deconstruction constitutes the theoretical framework of the study to reveal inconsistencies and controversies between the text and its signification. To this end, the research involves a number of terms and concepts devised by Derrida such as binary, logocentrism, différance and aporia.