Development of the Female Self and National Identity in Selected Kenyan Women’ S Writings
Abstract
This .study sets out to investigate development of the female self and national identity in
selected Kenyan women's writings. The interrogation of the numerous female identities that are
the concern of t .s study focuses on patriarchy, disease, ethnicity and violence as forces that
interfere with women's sense of selfhood, belonging to, and claiming the nation. The writings
under discussion produce meaning within feminist and postcolonial literary discourses. Thus,
feminist and postcolonial theoretical approaches are used as the tools for analyses of development
of female self and national identity in patriarchal and modern societies. In both cases, women's
self-identity is to a large extent denied. Even though they appropriate gender roles, often, women
question the subjective place that patriarchal order assigns and perpetuates in regard to women. In
- the contemporary society, disease subjugates women even though they are affirmed as part of the
nation while violence leads to helplessness and pessimism and hence the need for agency towards
women's progressive social change. The question of the female self and national identity is also
addressed with regard to ethnicity, sexuality, gender, social and political classes. The findings are
that ethnic, sexual, gender, social and political affiliations suppress the development of the female
self.
Citation
Master of ArtsPublisher
University of Nairobi Department of literature and language