The Quest for Female Self-Awareness in Shaping Identity A Case of Study Flora Nwapa’s Efuru

Résumé

In contrast to Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiongo who valued patriarchal authority, Flora Nwapa was among the pioneers who provided a comprehensive picture of how women are seen in current Nigerian culture. Efuru is the story of a strong, independent woman well-known for her trade abilities. She is also admired for her beauty, courage, and spirituality. Efuru creates her Female Identity through Self-realization in Colonial and Postcolonial African society. To analyze the topic of women's representation in Nigerian literature, we will depend on Simone de Beauvoir's notions of immanence and transcendence as presented in her book The Second Sex (1949). This has led to the fact that the character has reached her freedom after her awareness and belief that a woman can live without a man and marriage. Nwapa seems to be creating new identities and images for women than the prescribed ones created by men who made women think that marriage is essential for a woman's existence.