Autobiographical Traces of Bond Between A Novelist and Her Characters: The Case of Buchi Emecheta
Keywords:
fact, fiction, autobiography, Emecheta, storyAbstract
Most writers write stories purely from their imagination; few others also write to recount their lines in the form of fictional story lines by choosing imaginative characters to represent them. In this regard, this study is interested in investigating the traces of bond between Emecheta and her characters in her novels. Clearly, she does not allow her readers to know the stories are about her. It is only when readers read her book titled Head above Water (1986) that they come to realize that all the stories they have been reading are Emecheta’s own life stories. Using the feminist theory, this paper purposively selected five novels of Emecheta and traces the bond that she creates between her and her characters in these novels. The paper concludes that Emecheta displays mastery over her narratives and succeeds in telling her life story through a blend of both fact and fiction.
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