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Pam Lock
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Masculinities in Nigerian FictionReceptivity and Gender
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Published 31 May 2027. Can be pre-ordered from 30 November 2026
About this book
Reveals how Nigerian writers redefine masculinity to challenge social norms and affirm relationalities
- Represents one of the first book-length works on Nigerian masculinities, given literary critics’ scant investigations of men as salient sites for rethinking gender identity
- Incorporates a Nigerian cultural perspective that centres the family as a site for the contestation of male hegemony
- Reframes conversations on gender by bringing in queer narratives of men and women to problematise the overly heteronormative accounts of masculinity in Nigeria
- Develops a new approach to the study of masculinity by stressing ethical relationality rather than gender identity as pivotal to social relations
- Locates young masculinities as necessary sites for envisioning socio-cultural changes
Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction: Receptivity and Gender examines the depictions of men, women and masculinities in Nigerian novels by Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jude Dibia and Chinelo Okparanta. It shows how these writers contest cultural models of manhood and womanhood by portraying characters who articulate openness towards the marginalised and stigmatised in society, thus challenging hegemonic gender and sexual norms. Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike employs receptivity as a theoretical and relational lens to analyse how these writers depict characters who identify with the suffering of others and those living in precarious conditions. This book centres ethics as a crucial element in redefinitions of masculinity. It emphasises the need to appreciate the full humanity of another, especially those the dominant culture usually discriminates against and renders abject in society.
Reviews
A socially relevant scholarship... Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction expands our sense of and sensibilities towards gender and sexuality. [...] We need Umezurike’s ‘ethic of receptivity’ not only to relate with one another as human equals, but also to recognise the precariousness and grievability of other lives. This recognition may enable us to imagine and create a more egalitarian, more just, more empathetic society where every life will be protected by the nation and the law against cultural and social orthodoxies that insist on their inevitability. Without this, our national ideals, indeed our human ideals, are just what they are: ideals that may not translate into livable futures.
Umezurike’s text remains foundational and will inspire insightful debates and meaningful conversations on masculinities and gender in Nigerian and African literature, as it brings literary insight to a discourse on masculinities that has hitherto been dominated by sociological, ethnographic, and medical perspectives. This book is a huge resource for students and scholars of Nigerian/African literature, African cultural studies, African gender and feminist scholars, postcolonial and masculinity scholars and everyone interested in understanding the multidimensionality of gender construction and expression in society.
Dr. Umezurike holds a mirror to the African world. His works are decisively ethical and a breath of fresh air in African scholarship. Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction is an original book that promises to expand the growing interest in the construction of masculinity in the African imagination.
Table of contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Woman Wrapper, Domesticating Masculinity and Gender Discourse
Chapter One: Precariousness in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Chapter Two: Orthodoxy in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus
Chapter Three: Receptivity in Jude Dibia’s Walking with Shadows
Chapter Four: Hospitality in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees
Conclusion: The Saliency of Ethical Relationality
Works Cited
Index
About the author
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