The representation of gender in the novel 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Bonn (Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie), course: Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures, language: English, abstract: This paper is going to argue whether Achebe's novel 'Things Fall Apart' illustrates an Ibo society with socially constructed gender roles. Male dominance and supremacy are visible throughout the whole novel, just as the subordination and discrimination of the female gender. Moreover, the novel depicts numerous gender stereotypes, which will be analysed in this paper to achieve a better understanding of the gender ideologies in Achebe's society. Strong gender roles can be seen in various situations in the life of Okonkwo, which is why this paper is going to be focussed on different aspects in the life of the protagonist of the novel. Beside the question whether 'Things Fall Apart' portrays strong masculine dominance, the following questions will be answered: Are there differences in the various spaces regarding gender roles in the novel? Is there an aspect in Ibo's society in which the subordination of women is broken? These questions allow the paper to take female rebellion into consideration and to keep the analysis open to a variety of readings of the novel without purely focussing on the reader's first impression of the dominance of manhood.