An intimately public Nigeriapostromanticizing the nation in third-generation nigerian women's fiction

Abstract

This thesis explores feminist identities within the so-called “third generation” of Nigerian writers. The focus is on the analysis of representations of (anti)romantic relationships and episodes of “forced intimacy” in three novels set in Nigeria during a time span which ranges from its independence, in 1960, to the 2010s: Daughters Who Walk This Path (2012), by Yejide Kilanko; Under the Udala Trees (2015), by Chinelo Okparanta; and Stay with Me (2017) by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀. The three novels which constitute the corpus of the thesis address intimate and romantic relationships, family matters, motherhood, and social roles affecting the female protagonists. Such female characters will be introduced as having to conform to pre-established feminine and heterosexual models of performativity as part of what are referred to as Nigerian traditional practices. Against this background, the thesis establishes a parallelism between personal relationships described in the novels and the social and political evolution of Nigeria as a nation. Through the analysis of the affective and socio-cultural evolution of the protagonists of the three novels object of study, I seek to explore the self-fulfillment of these women as intimately associated with the deconstruction of the myth of the nation, and more specifically with the ideal of a nation built through a collective sacrifice which prompts the consolidation of traditions. In this context, the thesis demonstrates that there is a direct association between demystified representations of the nation and a disillusionment with the romantic ideals of the couples featuring in the novels under study. As a result, this thesis advocates for the existence of a model of “postromantic” evolution which transcends the performativity linked to romanticization. Such evolution will be intro