A self adorned with uncertainty: Black female identity in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

The main aim of this doctoral dissertation is to investigate if and how the multiplicities in Chimamanda Adichie‘s construction of Ifemelu, the main character of Americanah, – as well as of other female characters in the novel – might be faced as a strategy to question and escape ―the single story‖ of stereotyping and objectification to which several minority groups have been confined. I aim to demonstrate how some characters are willing or led to inhabit the stereotype that has been created for them but also how others manage to find a breach in this social contract to search for a more diverse subjectivity. In order to fulfill this goals, this research is based on a (re)reading of theoretical and critical texts that address identity, feminist criticism, postcolonialism, race and diaspora. Through this reading, I construct the framework for the analysis of Ifemelu‘s identity and of other characters that are important to her construction as a character, which are: Ifemelu‘s mother, Aunty Uju, Obinze‘s mother, Ginika, Kimberly, Laura, Curt, Blaine, Ranyinudo, Doris, and Kosi. I also explore Ifemelu‘s relationship with her role in society, her body, her sexuality and her writing. The analysis here proposed demonstrates a plurality of female subjectivities and the multiplicity of systems of oppressions that attempt to subject women in different moments of the narrative. Our discussions corroborate the hypothesis that Ifemelu acquires fluidity in light of the many systems that oppress her, being able to gain a new perspective by occupying several simultaneous ‗elsewhere‘ positions, transforming places of alienation into a form of resistance and of reinventing her self.