Informational Social Power in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "Purple Hibiscus"

Abstract

This paper establishes how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Purple Hibiscus (Fourth Estate, 2004) depicts the use of informational social power as an alternative hegemonic trope that characters rely on in the negotiation for social power. The study is justified by the fact that studies on Purple Hibiscus have tended to deal with the gender-based portrayal of patriarchal power while ignoring a sociological approach to the study of power in the text. The gap addressed by the paper is hence an elucidation of how manipulation of knowledge as provided, supported, and underscored by the discourses of one’s orientation and background, is responsible for the tragic twist of the text under study. The theoretical lens used in the paper is Michel Foucault’s idea of power and discourse. This study is ‘interpretivist’ with primary data on informational power collected through a reading of the primary text while secondary data is acquired from a reading of related print and electronic sources. The conclusion reached is that the author uses different aspects of traditions to entrench informational social power and by so doing contest influence that hinges on modernity and its attendant indifference.