This paper examines how male characters in the corpus use tradition as a pretext to suppress female characters. The paper also demonstrates the challenges they face in their struggle with female protagonists. Feminism constitutes the theoretical lens that will be used to analyze and interpret the texts under study. The novels form a trilogy composed of The Lady with a Beard, The Lady with the Sting and She Seized the Balls. Male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior to women. According to Cambridge Dictionary, it is the “belief that women are naturally less important, intelligent, or able than men, and should be treated differently”. The trilogy provides great examples of mechanisms of hegemony, subordination and marginalisation through the representation of its male characters. In the fictional world which the texts depict, men denigrate women in the belief that they are inferior to them and thus deserve less treatment or benefit. What accounts for this belief is the patriarchal order imposed by the tradition of the Bakossi land. The study concludes that male characters manipulate social traditions to maintain inequality in gender relations but meet the opposition of women who are determined to express themselves.
male chauvinism, patriarchy, female oppression, resistance
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