The wounded psyche and beyond: Conformity and marginality in selected African and Afro-American novels

This dissertation explores and interprets the predicaments of female characters in six African and Afro-American novels. It examines how conformity to or deviation from the mores of their societies leads to either growth or disintegration of the characters. Both the major and minor figures are studied to provide a comprehensive view of the limitations in the various choices available to the heroines and to the other women in the novels. In an effort to balance their roles in society with their search for personal fulfillment, the women's choice to conform to oppressive mores or to deviate from them causes suffering referred to in this study as the "wounded psyche." This study will show that the Black woman's gender-related dilemmas transcend time and region.;The African novels selected are The Joys of Motherhood (Buchi Emecheta), Efuru (Flora Nwapa) and Ripples in the Pool (Rebeka Njau). Quicksand (Nella Larsen), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston), and Sula (Toni Morrison) form the Afro-American component of the study. The sequence of the novels is designed to illustrate the protagonists' progressive movement away from conformity to marginality, signaling progressive defiance of the status quo in favor of personal goals. Marginality, as used in this study, describes women whose fates are even more precariously situated than those of the conventional marginal person. For them, no alternate group exists. Once on the periphery of their society, they remain lonely pioneers, prototypes of a new woman as yet to be understood or accepted by society.;The conclusion offers a synopsis of the overall thematic parallels and the implications of these parallels for the realities of both the African and Afro-American women's experiences in these works. As the author perceives it, there are also strong similarities in the techniques which dramatize the most critical moments in the lives of the characters.