Abstract
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has emerged to be one of the most engaging voices of her era, energizing contemporary African fiction since the publication of her first novel Purple Hibiscus in 2003. Her stories shape a new world of understanding giving expression to narratives with dexterously sensitive themes like passionate love, freedom, moral responsibility and human commitments. Adichie’s fiction cuts across racial and linguistic boundaries, lending voice to penetrating ideological articulations through intensive critical analysis, commentaries and interpretations. Purple Hibiscus rightly qualifies as a prototype of resistance literature. Resistance literature not only calls for a wider, more serious consideration of previously ignored Third World texts, but also demands that critics abandon their New Critical mantle of neutrality and objectivity in favor of a methodology that takes the social, political, and historical circumstances of these works into account. The women protagonists in the novel, Kambili Achike and her aunt Ifeoma never enjoyed, though inwardly the veneer of comfort and safety they wanted. They were made aware of their identity as women, demanding submission. This paper is an attempt to script the resistance and resilience spectacled by the protagonists even though they had to put up with negotiated compliance.
Keywords: Resistance literature, African history, Racism, Colonialism, Patriarchy, Cultural space.
[1] Assistant Professor, St Cyril’s College, Adoor, Kerala.