Abstract:
This thesis attempts to investigate the theme of alienation and African women's
identity in Bessie Head's The Cardinals (1993) and A Question of Power (1974), in
addition to Buchi Emecheta's Gwendolen (1989) and Second Class Citizen (1974). It
aims at: studying the concept of alienation in the novels, explaining the factors that
create this sense of estrangement in the female characters, and finally exploring
ways to overcome alienation and reach self-assertion. Accordingly, this study
proposes three facets of alienation: social, racial and sexual. Society with its
conformism can lead to the marginalization of women who fail to fit its standards.
Using Social-psychology, the alienating social processes such as conformism will be
studied, in addition to exploring the states or syndromes of alienation including
isolation and withdrawal from society.
