Beyond semiotics: a re/conceptualization of literary theories for critical gender.

Abstract

This research attempts to re-examine specific linguistic and literary theories and relate them to the understanding of the question of gender and feminism with concrete allusion to semantics, semiotics, and interpretations as hermeneutics. The essence of this is to underscore feminist critical discourses and criticism so that the trajectory of gender and social themes in post-colonial Africa could be further re-evaluated. Feminist literary criticism is significant because it is rooted in the 1960’s women’s movement although women’s struggle was in existence prior to this time. The women’s movement – which began as a western phenomenon - also wanted to redefine the role of women in society and to create conditions for equality in both the public and the private spheres. Lawler (2014: 18) views feminism and identity as contemporary concepts that are very important in society and aligns herself with Barry (1995) when she indicates that the women’s movement cannot be said to be the start of feminism; rather, it renews an old tradition of thought and actions which were imminent in the classic books which explain the inequality in society. She continues that the way people self-identify reveals a lot about human society and challenges the concepts of gender and identity suggesting, like Butler, that they are socially constructed, potentially mobile, and not essential. The article suggests that since they are socially constructed conceptions, they emerge and are formulated within the cogent framework of social relationships in literature.