Gender Roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix

Abstract

This paper examines gender roles in Chika Unigwe’s The Phoenix (2007). In examining these gender roles, the paper focuses on the roles of both female and male genders in the novel in order to tease out issues that border on the marriage institution and gender complementarity in a multicultural setting. As we have attempted to show through our analyses, those issues of gender roles and gender relations that re-echo in Unigwe’s novel need to be given enough critical attention. In other words, the need to highlight these issues is what motivates this study. The paper establishes that women are becoming more uncomfortable with the natural roles matrimony allots them. This has not helped issues, in terms of harmonious family relations. Finally, there is an urgent need to incorporate into national discourse issues raised by Unigwe in her novel on gender roles and gender relations as they concern Nigerians in the home nation or their host nations in this era of globalization.

Keywords: Gender roles, gender relations, novelist, Globalization