GENDER ROLES, WOMEN AND THE POLITICS OF BECOMING IN ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN’S UNDER THE BROWN RUSTED ROOF

Abstract

Society’s strict insistence on prescribed gender-typed roles and behaviours has eventually become a parameter that defines the expectations for each sex. These expectations, among other things, include how men and women, as well as boys and girls, should behave and look like, and what they ought to do and also not to do. This has consequently created, reinforced, and perpetuated male dominance and female subordination. Thus, the construction of masculine/feminine, father/mother, husband/wife, and superior/inferior becomes a social process of gendering power in society. In literature, the situation has led to a negative portrayal of women, especially in male-authored literary works. Against this backdrop, this paper addresses the conflict of power and interest within the family and societal structure, through analysis of Abimbola Adelakun’s Under the Brown Rusted Roof. The paper adopts Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity as its theoretical standpoint and succinctly establishes that male dominance is not only sexist, but promotes the belief that women are inferior to men. In conclusion, the paper argues that the way women are portrayed in female-authored texts, exemplified in Adelakun’s text, revises the canon and attempts to justify the need for the dismantling of power structures within the family.