Countering Feminist Dystopia in The Thing Around Your Neck through the Lens of Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Abstract

The paper explores how the female characters of The Thing Around Your Neck delve into a dystopian existence where their life was marked by systematic oppression and how they fought the grim situations through the powerful counterpoints suggested in the form of fifteen suggestions in Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. The paper echoes the status of women in Nigerian society and specifically in Igbo culture, where the treatment of women is hinged on the dictates of patriarchy; however, their reformist attitude shows the evolution of the female characters from submissive, subjugated and suppressed to headstrong, assertive and liberated women. By using the model of feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), the research qualitatively explores the author's resistance to gender biases. Feminist utopian writers included dystopian warnings in their texts, but Adichie has turned the tables by adding hopeful notions in dystopian writing.