Nitisha Seoda1 & Devendra Kumar Sharma2
1,2 Department of English & MELs, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India
Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.06
[Article History: Received: 11 October 2023. Revised: 26 December 2023. Accepted: 26 December 2023. Published: 27 December 2023]
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Abstract
This study situates itself in the literary representations of the interplay of gender, class, color, race, postcoloniality, power politics, violence, identity, and the African self in a Bildungsroman. It focuses on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus as a Bildungsroman of woman, written from a postcolonial outlook. The narrative centers on the growth, development, and experiences of the female Bildungsheld, Kambili, who eventually attains epiphany, and explores her true self and identity. In other words, the study follows an eclectic approach, which further focuses on Kambili’s odyssey of encountering freedom by tearing out the different challenges, and insecurities during the process of subjectivization, objectification, and interpellation towards her journey of becoming in a political context of a military coup in Nigeria. As a result, the article emphasizes the confluence of history and literature, as well as Africans’ experiences in the postcolonial world in general, and accounts for Kambili’s becoming in particular.
Keywords: Gender, Female Bildungsroman, Patriarchy, Postcolonialism, Self
Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Seoda, N. & Sharma, D.K. (2023). Poetics of Self in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus: A Postcolonial Bildungsroman Study. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.06