Responding to the Challenge: Feminist Consciousness in <i>Breaking the Silence: An Anthology of Short Stories</i>

Abstract

Female writing in Nigeria was once a rarity with only Nwapa, Emecheta, Sofola, or Segun breaking the monotony of male literary creativity. Recently however, female writing has blossomed and become as expected as male writing, if not more so, because of the special challenge peculiar to female writers. This paper shows the influence of the feminist literary theory on contemporary female writing in Nigeria. Using some stories from the anthology Breaking the Silence: An Anthology of short stories (1996), the paper posits that female writers in Nigeria have taken up the challenge of their expected acquiescence and silence (as expressed in Little, 1980, for example). These writers have demonstrated that female writing can be feminist (i.e. advocating female rights) without being antagonistic or confrontational.