Portrayal of Women Characters in Selected Contemporary Yoruba Novels in Nigeria

Abstract

Contemporary Yoruba novelists and critics have done tremendous works in
portraying female characters in their literary production. For example,
Okediji (1981) in Atoto Arere portrays female characters as mother, wife,
sister, prostitute, harsh and malicious, who always keep malice against
others. Some other novelists and critics like Olabimtan (1993), Orilawe
Adigun, Sobande (1959) Rigimo Obinrin o se tu and Adeyemi (2005) Oga
Niya Mi among others celebrate womanhood in their novels. They portray
women as loving, hardworking, serious-minded and people of dignity and
character. This paper is a continuation of the discourse. It examines three
novels namely Fila lobinrin, Igba Oro and Eru o bodo and evaluates how
female characters in the novels are portrayed. The feminist approach has
been adopted as our theoretical framework.