The Female Body as the Topos of Patriarchal Oppression in "Skinned", a Short Story by Nneka Lesley Arimah

Ahmadou Siendou KONATÉ et Johnson Adeboyé ADEGOKÉ

Volume 16 – Septembre 2021 : Le corps dans les productions artistiques et culturelles : entre esthétique et signification (2021) Page(s) 32 - 55 ISSN 2076-6130

Through the paradigm of clothed (married) and unclothed (unmarried) women, the UK-based Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah ponders on the issue of marriage in a patriarchal culture. The author also seeks to problematize the place of pride allocated to the idea of male/female companionship and the extreme importance thereof in African society (whether traditional or modern) in general, and particularly in Nigeria’s Igbo society. Arimah uses nakedness as her tópos koinós (the commonplace, the seat or the line of argument) to not only show how and why the female body is captivating, eye-catching in the sense that when it is uncovered it instigates countless comments, whether positive or snide. But also, nakedness is mirrored as a site of freedom, or agency and voicedness in a society where womanhood tends to be reduced to the only gender roles devised and substantiated by men who happen to be the conflict-ridden counterpart of the women portrayed, signified and sometimes, negativized. In this work resounding as a grueling attempt to assail patriarchy and the use of the married status in Igbo society, “to be clothed or not to be clothed?” is the question to grapple with. In “Skinned”, the fact of refusing to marry, to get claimed by a man, thereby pleasing the expectations of society where being unmarried, is synonymous with unnaturalness, ought to be read, more often than not, as an act of courage and a call to defy the prevailing patriarchal system. SIENDOU KONATÉ & ADEBOYÉ AD

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Ahmadou Siendou KONATÉ et Johnson Adeboyé ADEGOKÉ. « The Female Body as the Topos of Patriarchal Oppression in "Skinned", a Short Story by Nneka Lesley Arimah ». Revue Ivoirienne de Langues Étrangères, Numéro 16, 2021, p. 32. ISSN 2076-6130.