Women’s Identities and Subjectivity of Self in Lesley Nneka Arimah’s ‘What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky’

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of women’s identities and embedded subjectivity of selfin Lesley Nneka Arimah’s What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky. Considering thedearth of critical works on the debut collection, this paper fills the gap, in reading some of thepurposively selected stories through a feminist standpoint. The textual analysis of the selectedstories reveals patriarchal social order and the power tussle among women as challenges facingthe true emancipation of women. The latter challenge, however, the paper argues, emanates fromthe sole aim to either undermine or strengthen the weak amongst affected women. This paperequally underscores both dignified and degrading identities evident in some of the femalecharacters, ranging from being assertive, independent, dubious and aggressive to being wayward.In manifesting through these identities, the paper exposes the subjective interests behind the rolesor actions of the women which are to better their lives and those of others around them.Furthermore, there is an overt display of personal struggle for emotional fulfilment amongmajority of the female characters in most of the studied stories. This paper concludes thatArimah, as a new feminist voice in the corpus of African literature, has, through this debutcollection, added fresh insights to the identities of African women with vistas of underlyingissues for critical engagements among feminist critics and writers.