Most Post-Military era Nigerian narratives do not only deal specifically with the growth process of their protagonist, they equally foreground how the characters negotiate their identity within circumscribed spaces. Some of the spaces where identities are negotiated and constructed include—silent familial/domestic, religio-cultural traditions, construct of gender and nation, as well as in multicultural and transnational arenas. Interestingly therefore, it appears third generation Nigerian writers have exhumed a buried humanist legacy from the rubbles of Hitler’s post-World War Germany, labeled the Bildungsroman—a narrative form which charts the growth process (both physical and psychological) of the protagonist. However, the form is not only Western oriented, it is equally masculine. These emergent writers have not only postcolonised the form, but the Bildungsroman has created ample opportunities for them to dialogue with pressing postcolonial concerns especially that of identity formation. This essay attempts to examine how postcolonial female writers subvert a male narrative form to give expression to the strategies female characters employ to negotiate their identity in male dominated spaces. Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come provides the tool for textual analysis.

Most post-military era Nigerian narratives do not only deal specifically with the growth process of their protagonist, they equally foreground how the characters negotiate their identity within circumscribed spaces. Some of the spaces where identities are negotiated and constructed include silent familial/domestic spheres, religio-cultural traditions, gender and nation, as well multicultural and transnational arenas. Interestingly therefore, it appears third generation1 Nigerian writers have taken advantage of a western narrative form, labeled the Bildungsroman—a narrative form which charts the growth process (both physical and psychological) of the protagonist to reappraise the idea of nationhood, considering the fact that military rule ended in Nigeria in 1999. However, the form is not only western oriented, it is equally masculine. These emergent writers may not be conscious practitioners of the form, but the Bildungsroman as a narrative form has created ample opportunities for them to dialogue with the nation on pressing postcolonial concerns, especially issues dealing with exile, gender crisis, child soldier, religion, governance, national and private identity formation.2 The argument above does not in any way suggest that both first and second generation Nigerian writers did not adopt the Bildungsroman form, for Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1977) is woven around the coming-of-age theme. The form appears to be more popular with the third generation writers because most debut novels published since 1999 adopt the plot structure of the Bildungsroman.

Commonwealth Literature Journal, Aravind Adiga, Cultural Production, Commercial Mediations, Indian Fictional Writing, South-Asian Cultural Commodities, Contemporary Corruption, Social Responsibility, Postcolonial Literatures, Foreign Cultures, Commercial Implications, Postcolonial Production.