CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1.1Background to the Study

Portrait is a detailed description of somebody or thing (Walter et al). On the other hand, character is defined as a person or animal in a book or film/movie (Walter et al). However, in more detailed definition, character is seen as a person represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who is interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral, intellectual and emotional qualities by inferences from what the person says and his distinctive way of saying it- the dialogue-and from what he does-the action. (Abrams & Harpham 2009).

The two definitions above set the background for this study. The preoccupation here in this study, therefore, is to derive a portrait of a central female character each from the two selected African novels. This would be achieved by taking an in-depth look at these characters from her intellectual and emotional qualities viewed broadly from her social, political, psychological, cultural and religious backgrounds in which she lives as has been presented in these novels and how these sociological resources help to form the portraits.

This research work seeks to literarily mould the portrait of the female character from the selected African novels using the tools of imagery, characterization, stream of consciousness, dialogue and other elements of fiction that have been used in these selected novels. This study is driven by the focus to essentially examine the interface of the sociological and psychological backgrounds relevant to the building of the portrait of the female characters in African novels.

This research work aims to achieve the following:

1. Select central female characters in So Long A letterandYellow Yellow and derive a portrait of the female character from each of them.
2. Validate the portrait from each novel by using the social, psychological, religious, political and cultural backgrounds in which the novel is set.
3. Aggregate two central portraits from the portraits derived from each of the selected African novels.

The advocacy for affirmative action in women representation in leadership positions in Africa has been on for years. Relatively, little gains, from the report of this study, have been recorded over the years. This calls for a critical look at the representation of womanhood in literature as a mirror of the place of the African woman in the scheme of things. This research therefore seeks to aggregate a portrait from the derived portraits of female characters in the two selected African novels to serve as a guide and contribution to this advocacy. The effort in this study is also to provoke critical thinking in the validity or otherwise of the portraits when set against the portrait of the African woman in the contemporary African society.

This research is limited to the study of the portrait of a central female character in each of the following novels: So Long A letter by Mariama Ba and Yellow Yellow by Kaine Agary. This work is set against historical evidences of the evolution of the female character from the 20th century till date. It takes cognizance of textual materials from the selected novels to justify her docility of the female character or otherwise in the early twentieth century, and up to her prominence or otherwise in the present African society.

This study has majorly depended on primary sources which are the selected novels. It also owes its direction to secondary materials as captioned in the literature review which have provided insights into textual materials relevant to the topic in focus. The study goes further to subject textual materials from the selected novels into sociological analysis to arrive at the portraits of female characters.

This research work is undertaken using the sociological theory framework which is driven by the how and why particular facts about the social world are related. Consequently, my analysis and derivation of the portraits of the female characters in the selected novels are guided by the central questions of how and why the characters were sustained throughout the narrative.

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