Resistance in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street

Abstract

Louis Althusser’s critique of ideology reveals that a subject can hardly ever escape ideology. This paper therefore examines the issue of resistance in the novels of two female African authors: Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1995) and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2009).Both writers interrogate female autonomy against the backdrop of established traditional and modern socio-cultural formations. The paper highlights the actions of the female characters as rooted in the material practices of ideology, therefore making it rather impossible for them to reconstitute their agency, especially against the prevailing phallocentric African culture in which they find themselves.

Key words: ideology, subjectivity, sexuality, resistance, objectification