The Western Voice and Feminist Criticism of the Nigerian Novel

Abstract

The Western voice is one of the pioneering voices in the early development of the feminist criticism of the Nigeriannovel. As a result it constantly deploys Western critical methods into the criticism of the Nigerian Novel .This papertherefore re-examines these issues using meta-criticism in order to put the feminist ideology in proper perspective inthe Nigerian Novel. The feminist ideology in the Nigerian Novel tends to reduce Africa to cultural satellite of Europe.The attempts by the practitioners of feminist theory to define and align themselves with the theory have producedmany strands of the same theory. Among these strands are: feminism, motherism, womanism among others, all in aneffort to remain African and still relevant within the global perspectives. The paper discusses Western feminist critics’views on the Nigerian novel. The paper concludes that though the theory is gaining wide acclaim in Nigeria, whatthis paper advocates is womanism which is accommodative, complimentary and non-radical in its approach