Women liberation in male-dominated society: A critical discourse analysis of Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days

Abstract

The paper examined how the women in post-colonial Anglophone African writer, Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days portrayed the female protagonist in the male-dominated society. The researcher extracted the female-protagonist speeches that show her androgynous prowess to be liberated from male phallocentrism in Africa at large. The study has used critical discourse analysis (CDA thereafter) as a research tool to know how women can gain their empowerment; whether women need male support to redeem their image, and the challenges women need to expect when fighting for their rights. The theoretical framework provides the researcher to analyse how different meanings and ideologies are constructed, processed and legitimised in social practices. We adopted Fairclough's (1989) three dimensional framework- description (textual features), interpretations (discursive practices), and explanations (social practices). The findings showed that the writer has used the female-protagonist as a weapon for women liberation in male-dominated society. It also showed that women do not need male support for their empowerment and they can be ostracized, banished, ridiculed, before they gain their rights.