Reversal of Gender Roles in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Visit

Abstract

Writers assemble words to tell the story, develop the argument, dramatize the play or compose the poem in the process the themes which a reader finds convincing are developed. Flora Nwapa and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are African women writers from the East of Nigeria who have used the literary art at their disposal to portray women’s experiences in the contemporary world. Although Nwapa is the first African woman writer, the experiences of women she portrayed in Efuru are reversed in Adichie’s The Visit. Gender roles are reversed thus challenging the patriarchal roles of a woman placed as the head of the home, she works to earn for her husband and children, no housemaid and no sexual abuse is suspected at home. The literary techniques used include among others motif, tone, point of view, imagery, local colour, and songs. These techniques are used comparatively and it is discovered that they are apt in revealing women’s experiences in the novels. The literary theory used in this research is eclectic.