Struggling Souls in Surrendering Bodies: A Feminist Study of Makumbi’s ‘A Girl is a Body of Water’

Abstract

The current study is an endeavor to explore the patriarchal norms, and phases of
womanhood leading towards the subjugation of women in Makumbi’s ‘A Girl is a Body
of Water.’ This study follows the theoretical framework of Social Feminism and
explores the phases of womanhood suggested by Simone de Beauvoir in Second Sex
(1949). This study follows the parameters of qualitative research and Makumbi’s ‘A Girl
is a Body of Water’ has been used as a primary source of data. The findings of the study
unveil that the women in the selected text exhibit their growth and development going
through the phases of Childhood, The Girl, Sexual Initiation, The Married Woman, The
Mother, The Social Life, From Maturity to Old Age, Woman’s Situation, and The Woman
in Love. This study concludes that women through social norms and traditions are
conditioned to surrender and comply with the stereotyped roles. The study can help
its readers understand the mechanism of patriarchy and socially sponsored
suppression of women where women themselves reinforce their subjugation.