Inf(l)ecting mind/Body Dialectics and InsubordiNation in Chika Unigwe's Night Dancer

Abstract

[eng] As one of the most prominent voices of the so-called third generation of Nigerian authors, Chika Unigwe has engaged in the representation of female characters who embody alternative forms of feminism(s) in Nigeria and its diaspora. This article explores Unigwe’s novel Night Dancer (2012) as a distinctive third generation novel advocating self-emancipation through the appropriation and reversal of patriarchal nationalist discourses which objectify and sexualize female bodies. The evolution of Ezi, Night Dancer’s main character, is examined in relation to Unigwe’s discussion of a lack of solidarity between women and the significance of intergenerational teaching. Against this background, I argue that the novel depicts Unigwe’s rejection of the mind/body dichotomy by relating it to Ezi’s commodification of her body, and to her engagement with and refusal of intergenerational discourses inscribing female bodies within epistemological nationalist discourses.