WOMEN OBJECTIFICATION, EXCLUSION AND DENIAL OF AGENCY: A TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART THROUGH MILLS LENS

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the ways through which women agency is denied through objectification and exclusion in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The study is based on mixed method approach. It is primarily qualitative but quantitative data has also been added to validate the findings. The study incorporates Sara Mill’s Feminist Stylistics along with Michael Halliday’s concept of transitivity to analyze the novel. The findings reveal that certain types of transitivity choices in Things Fall Apart perpetuate male centric worldview. The transitivity analysis of selected clauses shows that agency is associated with male members of the society as they are involved in material actions. Female are devoid of agency while becoming goal in material processes. They are associated mostly with mental processes even in these processes  their faculties are either suppressed or monitored through male lens. This study can be further extended on the feminist stylistic and transitivity analysis of Chinua Achebe’s other works.