CHALLENGING THE CLASS-RIDDEN PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY: A MARXIST FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF MEDIE’S HIS ONLY WIFE

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the effects of class differences, economy and domination of male in the context of Medie’s His Only Wife in view of Friedrich Engels’ the Origin, Private Property and Land (1884) as a model framework.  The researchers seek to give a Marxist feminism interpretation of Medie’s His Only Wife highlighting the role played by class and patriarchy in subjecting Ghanaian women in the post-colonial society. The novel revolves around the main character Afi, whose life was organized and forced into marriage by her family and society against her wishes, and the process of discovering her identity. Through the life experiences of Afi, Medie demonstrates how this oppressive authority is compounded by class systems, thus limiting women’s freedoms. The present research study also adopts Marxist feminism perspective as the basis of the analysis of how the society’s ability and power dynamics of the genders in the novel is determined by the economic factors. It further examines how the inequality between the classes legitimizes patrimonial authority that devalues women socially as well as economically. It also attempts to discover how ‘resistance’ operates in the context of the novel in terms of both gender and class oppression as is seen in Afi’s gradual liberation process. Consequently, the study establishes the suitability of Marxist feminism in explaining multidimensionality of oppression in the postmodern African fiction.