Female enchainment and the quest for autonomy in Evelyne Accad’s <i>Wounding Words</i> and Daniel Mengara’s <i>Mema</i>.

Abstract

This study investigates female enchainment and quest for autonomy in Evelyne Accad’s Wounding Words and Daniel Mengara’s Mema. The African nay Arab societies have been foul in dealing with issues relating to women; the millieux the reader observes in Accad’s and Mengara’s novels are such that exhibit antagonism and debasement in their treatment of women. The women wallow in their hopelessness and life of ennui. In the two novels, there is a portrayal of women who are deprived, excluded and exploited. One observes the writers’ feelings and concern for these tormented women in Tunisia and Gabon. The two authors reveal the lives of women in different environments and periods but, their narratives reveal the same harrowing effects of patriarchal system on these helpless fellows. Worse still, Mengara who is a man presents his tale from a man’s perspective. They recount vivid and detailed account of feminine squelching in their works. Accad presents the passive rural Arab women who cannot challenge their oppression as well as the few educated women in the city who speak against female subjugation. However, Mengara introduces the only one out of the women in his milieu whose treadmill remains her confrontation on masculinity; her audacious nature becomes her Achilles’ heel. The study will be investigated using feminism as a theoretical framework.