Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This research valorises various interpretations of gender and identity-interplay which emanate from African literature within a fifty-year literary tradition as a result of knowledge and dynamic culture which is changing with time. It probes constructively and distinctively into the meaning of gender as critically espoused and explored in different African societies. Consequently, within 1960-2010, African literature through prose, poetry, and drama have taken a distinctive twist in the re-configuration of gender violence and identity presentation to re-define feminine and masculine scopes and concepts in some specific ramifications. Previous definitions and interpretations of gender gave preference to the body and eschewed the cultural aspect of the norm. The paper lends some axiomatic credence on Butler’s performativity and suggests that ‘a meaningful definition of gender must be devoid of biological classification of concept for human, social, and behavioural relevance. This means that, gender must not be measured by the biological yardstick of male or female embodiments in any dynamic and functional society, but by the societal relevance and behavioural motivation which construct it’ (Gender Trouble 1990: 10). The paper re-constructs the concepts of knowledge, cultural change in society, and organization to delineate the consequences and need for re-orientation of cultural benefits for the developments of Africa and its economy.