Summary. This study aims to examine the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the basis of Irigaray’s theory and rejection of gender difference. The entire novel is about the voice of women who are not heard. Their voices are mostly silenced by the society they live in because of their ethnicity and social status. Ifemelu is the main character of the novel whose identity is directly under the influence of culture and ethnicity in different contexts. With the help of Irigaray’s analysis, the predominance of the male gender and the concept of motherhood is shown. Female identity is characterized by the role that mothers play throughout historical discourse, emphasizing that women are associated with nature and negligence, as opposed to men, who are associated with discourse, culture and subjectivity. Irigaray’s assertions of female identity were rejected. The female characters in the narrative, like the men, are associated with culture and discourse rather than neglect and nature. Each of these female characters plays an important cultural function in refuting Irigaray’s notion. The paper argues that the existence of the sexual difference between male and female chaos reproduces gendered discourses to the detriment of women, thereby maintaining the status quo and serving the interests of powerful groups.
by Hasti Soltani & Ali Salami