FLESHING OUT MEMORY THROUGH FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS: PSYCHOANALYZING VIOLENT GIRLHOOD EXPERIENCES IN BUCHI EMECHETA’S THE BRIDE PRICE

Abstract

African feminist writing includes narratives primarily energized by oppressive female experiences. In The Bride Price, Emecheta is preoccupied with exposing culturally induced violence, consciously expressed in her reconstruction of gender roles in the Ibuza community. This research examines Emecheta’s fictive portrayal of the girl-child who is discriminated, abducted, stereotyped or forced into marriage and her efforts to escape not only from her oppressors but also from the psychosocial trauma of her violent experiences. This paper adopts feminism and psychoanalysis to capture how violent experiences inhibit the physical and emotional growth of the girl-child by causing mental disturbances such as fear, anxiety, depression or neurosis. The study shows that violent experiences affect the physical and psychological development of the girl-child which often leaves her frustrated, depressed, unfulfilled or dead. In The Bride Price, Aku-nna tries to reject oppressive cultural subjection to men through self-assertion, but becomes totally overwhelmed and unable to escape the neurotic consequences of her experiences.