Adedokun-Awojodu, Blessing (2019) FASHION AS A SIGNIFIER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WOMEN IN CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH. In: 1st National Conference of WITED, Ilaro Chapter, August 13-16, 2019, The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.
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Abstract
Fashion, particularly in Nigeria, has always been more than just dressing in the outward sense; it has always carried with it a sense of all that the people stand for, their belief, their cultural heritage, their experience, in fact, their identity. The advent of western civilisation through colonialism has however affected the fashion sense of Nigerians; modern fashion is hence the outward reflection of the psychological borrowing of western ideologies which has permeated every sphere of our national dealings. This study examines modern fashion as a “sign”, a signifier of the changing post-colonial identities of Nigerian women. The primary texts under consideration is Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi’s Americanah with keen interest in the female Nigerian characters of the text, at home and in diaspora, and how they express their changing post-colonial allegiances, through their fashion. The theories adopted for analysis are post-colonial feminism and semiotics. The research is able to affirm that fashion is vital to the discourse of identity and that it may be interpreted as a sign of underlying post-colonialism. Analysis shows that the post-colonial situation of Nigeria has occasioned the desperate need for survival among women to varying complicated degrees. Nigerian women everywhere struggle with issues of post-colonialism such as place and displacement, hybridity, diaspora, and hegemony, among others, and that these their experiences are made manifest and documented in their fashion statements. It is therefore subsumed that modern fashion is a potent tell-tale of post-colonialism.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Humanities |
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email [email protected] |
| Date Deposited: | 28 May 2021 15:32 |
| Last Modified: | 28 May 2021 15:32 |
| URI: | http://eprints.federalpolyilaro.edu.ng/id/eprint/1420 |
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