“What fashion of loving was she ever going to consider adequate?” Subverting the ‘Love Story' in Ama Ata Aidoo's Changes

Abstract

Ama Ata Aidoo is a celebrated writer and critic, as well as an African nationalist and feminist. This is a position she has defended in various articles and interviews, arguing that African feminism is an indigenous body of theory specific to the realities of African life. She has focused much of her work on the portrayal of African female identity in literature. Her writing has involved the reworking of previous, usually male-authored, literary stereotypes into believable characters, as well as an exploration of new, more complex roles for her female characters. Since this examination of gender roles moves beyond the traditional roles of ‘mother' and ‘wife,' it has a special bearing on modern African women faced with new questions of gender, power and identity.

English in Africa Vol. 34 (1) 2007: pp. 155-171