Women Writers Imagining of Men: The Imaging and Representation of Men in West African Womens Writings, Narratives and Novels: Implications for the Formation of the Human Subject/Individual and Induction Into the Symbolic Order: Redirecting the Gaze

This work is an examination of women’s writings, particularly of novels and narratives in West Africa, and what they structure for meaning in relation to men in the formation of the individual and their induction into the symbolic order of becoming human subjects. The paper supposes that women’s writings imagine, image and typify men according to certain frameworks and practice consciously or unconsciously derived from some basic and yet indeterminate source. The study attempts to trace out the outlines of some of these representations of men, leading to the frameworks within which they are typified and cast using a specimen of four popular women’s writings across West Africa. The significance of this study relates to the effect such imagination, imaging and typification have on the growth of young male children in West African societies. In other words, its goal is to understand the implications and effect of such representations and frameworks of imagination on the character of men and their empowerment for growth, maturity and productivity or otherwise. It is most relevant for the exploration of the creation of the human subject, which is crucial for the building of mental health and wellness, and is essential especially on account of the need for the upbringing of male children to be able to negotiate their human existence towards mental health stability, the reality principle, and eventual productivity within the normalcy of the growth process through the symbolic order.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Not applicable

The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.