The Womanist Ideology. A Study of Aidoo's Novel 'Changes: A Love Story'

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: B, University of Education (University of Education Winneba), language: English, abstract: This paper scrutinized the womanist ideology in Aidoo's 'Changes: A Love Story'. It employed Alice Walker's Womanism theory as the theoretical perspective within which the analysis of the instances of womanism in the text was cast. A major argument in this paper is that Aidoo's female characters are all well-educated, economically empowered, yet in their quest for independence as women in a traditionally patriarchal society, they opted against the Western radical feminist ideology of challenging men's domination and superiority over women to the extent that they would not agree to marry nor give birth. The paper then asserts that Aidoo is not a radical feminist but a Womanist who through her characters demonstrated Esi, Opokuya and Fusena's willingness to marry, bear children, and work for the survival and wholeness of the family inter alia which are contra-attributes of radical feminism. The paper is relevant because it contributes to the ongoing discourse on the feminist ideology of Aidoo in her works.

Joseph Peter Yaw-kan is a budding academic, and teacher of English Language and Literature at the Chereponi Senior High School. His research interests include: African fiction and Literary Stylistics.