Women meet dystopia in their America: a femalist reading of 'Americanah'

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Periodical article

Title:	Women meet dystopia in their America: a femalist reading of 'Americanah'
Author:	Orie, Chibueze Prince
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Okike: an African Journal of New Writing (ISSN 0331-0566)
Issue:	53
Pages:	61-70
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	novels women migrants identity
About person:	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977-)
Abstract:	Society has been patiently indifferent towards securing women's welfare. Nigerian social realities, tinged in patriarchal patina, cause women to consider self-exile as a possible path to liberation. Little does it occur to them that migrating to America or Europe will involve their being cut off from their roots. The emigrant will find herself stranded and frustrated; America or 'abroad' turns out to be dystopia, not utopia. To survive, sex is grudgingly traded. Chimamanda Adichie's 'Americanah' exposes the vicissitudes of women emigrants in America or Europe. Using a femalist perspective, this article finds that, through her story Adichie tries to dissuade women from thronging to foreign lands where they risk not only face sexual harassment but also the loss of her woman-essence, identity, roots, family and self. And once the woman migrant is dislocated, relocating and recovering herself proves tough. Bibliogr, sum [Journal abstract, edited]