Development of the Female Self and National Identity in Selected Kenyan Women’ S Writings

Abstract

This .study sets out to investigate development of the female self and national identity in selected Kenyan women's writings. The interrogation of the numerous female identities that are the concern of t .s study focuses on patriarchy, disease, ethnicity and violence as forces that interfere with women's sense of selfhood, belonging to, and claiming the nation. The writings under discussion produce meaning within feminist and postcolonial literary discourses. Thus, feminist and postcolonial theoretical approaches are used as the tools for analyses of development of female self and national identity in patriarchal and modern societies. In both cases, women's self-identity is to a large extent denied. Even though they appropriate gender roles, often, women question the subjective place that patriarchal order assigns and perpetuates in regard to women. In - the contemporary society, disease subjugates women even though they are affirmed as part of the nation while violence leads to helplessness and pessimism and hence the need for agency towards women's progressive social change. The question of the female self and national identity is also addressed with regard to ethnicity, sexuality, gender, social and political classes. The findings are that ethnic, sexual, gender, social and political affiliations suppress the development of the female self.