Abstract
This study observes how texts about Nigerian communities critique the idea that childlessness makes a woman lose their standing in society because they are not viewed as a complete person without children. Through close readings, I attend to how motherhood and marriage are regarded as the central aspect of a woman’s life. In chapter one, I explore these concerns in The Joys of Motherhood (2017) by Buchi Emecheta and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2011) by Lola Shoneyin. I have selected these literary texts because of their concern with the pressures and desperation that women in Nigerian communities experience to become mothers and to fulfil their gendered roles in their marriages and society. Furthermore, in Chapter Two, this study also explores the popular cultural fictional representation of the mother and daughter-in-law relationships in literary and cinematic texts such as Stay with Me (2017) by Ayobami Adebayo and the Nollywood film, The Wicked Mother-In-Law (2023) directed by Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen. The literary and fiction cinematic representations of jealous mothers-in-law show how they enforce patriarchal norms on their daughters-in-law by forcing and conditioning them into submission. Thus, identifying these mothers-in-law as agents of patriarchy. This study is significant because it shows how women should not be defined according to their reproductive abilities and thus, literature educates us about how society marginalises women. Moreover, literature also reveals and educates us that women tend to oppress other women due to the injustice and trauma of patriarchy they themselves endured.