For Popularity, Pleasure, or Other Reasons? The Treatment of Sex in The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47963/jla.v1i1.85Keywords:
Armah, explicit, sex, sexuality, sexual relationship, sex episodeAbstract
Sex or the intimate relationship between or among characters is an act that is explicitly depicted in the novels of Ayi Kwei Armah for various purposes. The purpose of sex should not just be sex for the sake of sex, or for the sake of making a writer ‘popular’. The paper argues that the act of sex plays a number of literary functions in these relationships. The thematic as well as other literary relevance of sex is explored through literary concepts such as ‘linguistic foregrounding’ and ‘paradigmatic associations’. Through these literary concepts of stylistic analysis, it becomes clear that sex plays the following roles in Armah’s novels: serves as an avenue for characterization; establishes a relationship as loving or adrift; is a tool of oppression and also vengeance; creates suspense and retains readers’ interest; obscures the real story plot for a literary effect such as ‘to motivate but also shock his (Armah’s) audience into activity’ (Fubara 72); and cures characters’ negative emotions like loneliness and anguish, among other roles. The paper concludes that Armah’s treatment of sex in largely explicit terms in his novels is not gratuitous, but fundamental for the appreciation of his literary works.
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References
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Adekoya, O. “Literary Democratisation in Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” Identity, Culture and Politics, vol.2, no. 1, 2001, pp. 142-156.
Adjei, Daniel Oppong. Race Relations in the Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah. Unpublished Graduate Dissertation, Department of English, University of Cape Coast, 2010.
--- “Domination in sexual relations in the novels of Ayi Kwei Armah.” Drumspeak: International Journal in the Humanities, vol.5, no.2, 2016, pp.1-34.
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Armah, Ayi Kwei. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1968.
--- Fragments. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1970.
--- Why Are We So Blest? London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1972.
--- Two Thousand Seasons. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1973.
--- The Healers. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1978.
--- Osiris Rising. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh, 1995.
--- KMT: In the House of Life. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh, 2002.
Bastyra, Judy. Sex: The Ultimate Lover’s Guide. London: Hermes House, 2006.
Busia, Abena P.A. “Parasites and Prophets: The Use of Women in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Novels”. 1986. In D. Wright (Ed.), Critical Perspectives on Ayi Kwei Armah (pp.48-71). Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1992.
Callister, M., Coyne, S.M., Stern, L.A., Stockdale, L., Miller, M.J., and Wells, B.M. “A Content Analysis of the Prevalence and Portrayal of Sexual Activity in Adolescent Literature”. Journal of Sex Research, vol.49, no.5, 2012, pp.477-486.
Crehan, Stewart. “Phantasy and Repression in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Research
in African Literatures, vol.2, no.4, 1995, pp.104-120.
Darko, Amma. Beyond the Horizon. England: Heinemann, 1991.
Dunham, J. “The Fanonian Dialectic: Masters and Slaves in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol.47, no.2, 2012, pp.281-294.
Dunton, C. “‘Wheyting be dat?’ The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature”. Research in African Literature, vol.20, no.3, 1989, pp.422-448.
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Gikandi, Simon. Reading the African Novel. London: James Currey, 1987.
Kakraba, Alexander Dakubo “Ayi Kwei Armah’s Novels of Liberation”. African Nebula, no.3, 2011a, pp. 48-61.
--- “Ayi Kwei Armah’s Vulgar Language in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, a Therapeutic Tool”. Current Research Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 3, no.4, 2011b, pp. 306-313.
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Lobb, Edward. “Personal and Political Fate in Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” In D. Wright (Ed.), Critical Perspectives on Ayi Kwei Armah (pp.242-256). Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1992.
Maja-Pearce, A. “The House of Slavery”. Women in African Literature Today, no.15, 1987, pp.140-151.
--- “Ayi Kwei Armah and the Harbingers of Death”. Essays on African Writing: A Re-evaluation, no.1, 1993, pp.13-23.
McConnell-Ginet, S. Gender, Sexuality and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2011.
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Morell, K. In Person, Achebe, Awoonor and Soyinka. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.
O’Connell, H.C. (2012). “A Weak Utopianism of Postcolonial Nationalist Bildung: Re-reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Journal of Post Colonial Writing, vol.48, no.4, 2012, pp.371-389.
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Opoku-Agyemang, Naana Jane S. (2012). “An Analysis of the Exponents of Oppression in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile”. In D.F. Edu-Buandoh & A. B. Appartaim (Eds.), Between Language and Literature: A Festschrift for Professor Kofi Edu Yankson (pp. 299-313). Cape Coast: University Printing Press, 2012.
Retief, Glen. “Homoeroticism and the Failure of African Nationalism in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Beautyful Ones”. Research in African Literatures, vol.40, no.3, 2009, pp.62-73.
Saadawi, Nawal El. God Dies by the Nile. London: Zed Books, 1984.
Sackey, Albert Ayitey. “Reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” In A.N. Mensah et al. (Eds.), Ghanaian Voices on Topics in English Language and Literature (pp.115-129). UK. Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited, 2013.
Sani, A.M. and Mani, M. “The Portrayal of Working Class People in African Novels: A Case Study of Festus Iyayi’s Violence”. Advances in Languages and Literary Studies, vol.5, no.4, 2014, pp.38-41.
Shaw, C.M. (2007). “You Had a Daughter, But I Am Becoming a Woman: Sexuality, Feminism and Postcoloniality in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and She No Longer Weeps”. Research in African Literatures, vol.38, no.4, 2007, pp.7-27.
Wright, Derek. “Returning Voyagers: The Ghanaian Novel in the Nineties”. Journal of Modern African Studies, vol.34, no.1, 1996, pp.179-192.
Yankson, Kofi E. An Introduction to Literary Stylistics. Anambra State, Nigeria: Pacific Publishers, 1987.
Yitah, H. and Dako, K. “Controlling Deviant Wives: Marriage and Justice in the Early Ghanaian Novel”. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol.48, no.4, 2012, pp.359-370.
Adekoya, O. “Literary Democratisation in Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” Identity, Culture and Politics, vol.2, no. 1, 2001, pp. 142-156.
Adjei, Daniel Oppong. Race Relations in the Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah. Unpublished Graduate Dissertation, Department of English, University of Cape Coast, 2010.
--- “Domination in sexual relations in the novels of Ayi Kwei Armah.” Drumspeak: International Journal in the Humanities, vol.5, no.2, 2016, pp.1-34.
Angmor, Charles. Contemporary Literature in Ghana, 1911-1978: A Critical Evaluation. Accra New Town: Woeli Press, 1996.
Aidoo, Ama Ata. Changes: A Love Story. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 1991.
Armah, Ayi Kwei. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1968.
--- Fragments. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1970.
--- Why Are We So Blest? London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1972.
--- Two Thousand Seasons. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1973.
--- The Healers. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1978.
--- Osiris Rising. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh, 1995.
--- KMT: In the House of Life. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh, 2002.
Bastyra, Judy. Sex: The Ultimate Lover’s Guide. London: Hermes House, 2006.
Busia, Abena P.A. “Parasites and Prophets: The Use of Women in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Novels”. 1986. In D. Wright (Ed.), Critical Perspectives on Ayi Kwei Armah (pp.48-71). Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1992.
Callister, M., Coyne, S.M., Stern, L.A., Stockdale, L., Miller, M.J., and Wells, B.M. “A Content Analysis of the Prevalence and Portrayal of Sexual Activity in Adolescent Literature”. Journal of Sex Research, vol.49, no.5, 2012, pp.477-486.
Crehan, Stewart. “Phantasy and Repression in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Research
in African Literatures, vol.2, no.4, 1995, pp.104-120.
Darko, Amma. Beyond the Horizon. England: Heinemann, 1991.
Dunham, J. “The Fanonian Dialectic: Masters and Slaves in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol.47, no.2, 2012, pp.281-294.
Dunton, C. “‘Wheyting be dat?’ The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature”. Research in African Literature, vol.20, no.3, 1989, pp.422-448.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1961.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality (Vol.1): An Introduction. Translated by Robert Hurley, New York: Vintage Books, 1978.
Fraser, Robert. The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah. London: Heinemann, 1980.
Fubara, A.M. “Memory, Verbal Onslaught and Persuasive Eloquence in Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons and The Healers”. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, vol.50, no.1, 2013, pp.64-73.
Garton, Stephen. Histories of Sexuality: Antiquity to Sexual Revolution. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2004.
Gikandi, Simon. Reading the African Novel. London: James Currey, 1987.
Kakraba, Alexander Dakubo “Ayi Kwei Armah’s Novels of Liberation”. African Nebula, no.3, 2011a, pp. 48-61.
--- “Ayi Kwei Armah’s Vulgar Language in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, a Therapeutic Tool”. Current Research Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 3, no.4, 2011b, pp. 306-313.
King-Aribisala, K. “Race, Racism and Sexual Metaphor in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Why Are We So Blest? Lagos Review of English Studies: A Journal of Language and Literary Studies, XI- XII, 1989, pp.295-307.
Lanre-Abass Bolatito. “The Natural Law Theory of Morality and the Homosexuality Debate in an African Culture”. Ogirisi: A Journal of African Studies, no.9, 2012, pp.182-214.
Lazarus, Neil. Resistance in Postcolonial African Fiction. London: Yale Univ. Press, 1990.
Linton, D. “Why is Pornography Offensive?” The Journal of Value Inquiry, vol.13, no.1, 1979, pp.57-62.
Lobb, Edward. “Personal and Political Fate in Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” In D. Wright (Ed.), Critical Perspectives on Ayi Kwei Armah (pp.242-256). Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1992.
Maja-Pearce, A. “The House of Slavery”. Women in African Literature Today, no.15, 1987, pp.140-151.
--- “Ayi Kwei Armah and the Harbingers of Death”. Essays on African Writing: A Re-evaluation, no.1, 1993, pp.13-23.
McConnell-Ginet, S. Gender, Sexuality and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2011.
McDonald, R. “Bound to Violence: A Case of Plagiarism”. Transition, no.41, 1972, pp. 64-68.
Morell, K. In Person, Achebe, Awoonor and Soyinka. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.
O’Connell, H.C. (2012). “A Weak Utopianism of Postcolonial Nationalist Bildung: Re-reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Journal of Post Colonial Writing, vol.48, no.4, 2012, pp.371-389.
Odhiambo, T. “Sexual Anxieties and Rampant Masculinities in Postcolonial Kenyan Literature”. Social Identities, vol.13, no.5, 2007, pp.651-663.
Odoi, A., Geoffrion, K., and Prah, M. “Good/Safe and Bad/Dangerous Sex: Perspectives of Young Women in Ghana and Burkina Faso on Healthy/Unhealthy Sexuality”. In J.B.A. Afful, et al. (Eds.), Communication, Culture and Health, (pp.33-43). Ghana: Faculty of Arts, University of Cape Coast, 2015.
Ogede, Ode S. Ayi Kwei Armah, Radical Iconoclast: Pitting Imaginary Worlds Against the Actual. Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2000.
Opoku-Agyemang, Naana Jane S. (2012). “An Analysis of the Exponents of Oppression in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile”. In D.F. Edu-Buandoh & A. B. Appartaim (Eds.), Between Language and Literature: A Festschrift for Professor Kofi Edu Yankson (pp. 299-313). Cape Coast: University Printing Press, 2012.
Retief, Glen. “Homoeroticism and the Failure of African Nationalism in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the Beautyful Ones”. Research in African Literatures, vol.40, no.3, 2009, pp.62-73.
Saadawi, Nawal El. God Dies by the Nile. London: Zed Books, 1984.
Sackey, Albert Ayitey. “Reading Ayi Kwei Armah’s Why Are We So Blest?” In A.N. Mensah et al. (Eds.), Ghanaian Voices on Topics in English Language and Literature (pp.115-129). UK. Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited, 2013.
Sani, A.M. and Mani, M. “The Portrayal of Working Class People in African Novels: A Case Study of Festus Iyayi’s Violence”. Advances in Languages and Literary Studies, vol.5, no.4, 2014, pp.38-41.
Shaw, C.M. (2007). “You Had a Daughter, But I Am Becoming a Woman: Sexuality, Feminism and Postcoloniality in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and She No Longer Weeps”. Research in African Literatures, vol.38, no.4, 2007, pp.7-27.
Wright, Derek. “Returning Voyagers: The Ghanaian Novel in the Nineties”. Journal of Modern African Studies, vol.34, no.1, 1996, pp.179-192.
Yankson, Kofi E. An Introduction to Literary Stylistics. Anambra State, Nigeria: Pacific Publishers, 1987.
Yitah, H. and Dako, K. “Controlling Deviant Wives: Marriage and Justice in the Early Ghanaian Novel”. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol.48, no.4, 2012, pp.359-370.
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Published
2019-12-20
How to Cite
Oppong Adjei, D. (2019). For Popularity, Pleasure, or Other Reasons? The Treatment of Sex in The Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah. KENTE - Cape Coast Journal of Literature and the Arts, 1(1), 29–58. https://doi.org/10.47963/jla.v1i1.85
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