Defying Class and Gender Expectations as Postcolonial Feminism between Ama Ata Aidoo and Arundhati Roy

Abstract

With the rise of feminism over the last century and its ongoing evolution, stories of women fighting against oppressive systems have grown in number and popularity. Many of these repressive systems include aspects of misogyny and patriarchy founded in colonialism. Feminists from formerly colonized countries have discussed how these oppressive aspects interact with native ideals in contradictory ways, expressing the need for their own kind of feminism that is not formed by colonial and Western ideals to address gender inequalities and discrimination in postcolonial nations. Two postcolonial novels that explore women navigating life in a patriarchal society that represent themselves in their own terms are Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. In these novels, the two protagonists, Esi and Ammu, navigate love and life with added layers of social and political discrimination in addition to having been previously married. The act of choosing themselves and love in spite of the ways colonialism combines with native ways of thinking is an example of postcolonial feminism.