The condemnation of homosexuality by Pentecostal discourse and the negation of the condemnation in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees: a dialogical analysis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/2236-6385.134963

Abstract

Anglophone queer African literature has become known in recent years with the publication of several novels, such as Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees, our object of analysis. In it, the main character Ijeoma experiences conflicts between her sexual orientation and anti-homosexuality Pentcostal dogmas. We thus seek to understand the role that the anti-homosexuality authoritative discourse of Pentecostalism plays in the construction of the protagonist, based on Bakhtin’s theory of the novel and on Africans’ and Africanists’ studies on the influence of religious fundamentalism on the lives of LGBTQIAPN+ in Africa. We concluded that the author created a character who, even oppressed by anti-homosexuality authoritative discourse of Pentecostalism, is capable of questioning it and thus refusing it.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Pedro José Garcia de Menezes, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Aluno do curso de Letras – Inglês da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), pesquisador de Iniciação Científica, bolsista do CNPq.

Orison Marden Bandeira de Melo Júnior, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Orison holds a master's degree in Literature and Literary Criticism and a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies. He did his postdoctoral training in Languages, focusing on Aglophone queer African literature. He teaches literature in English in the Teacher education program in English and is a permanent professor in the Graduate Program in Language Studies of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Based on dialogism, his research is aligned with two lines of research in the Program, namely, 'Poetics of modernism and postmodernism' and 'Studies in discursive practices.' He is a CNPq Research Productivity Fellow – Level 2.

Published

2024-03-26

How to Cite

MENEZES, P. J. G. de; BANDEIRA DE MELO JÚNIOR, O. M. The condemnation of homosexuality by Pentecostal discourse and the negation of the condemnation in Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees: a dialogical analysis . Cadernos do IL, [S. l.], n. 66, p. 128–152, 2024. DOI: 10.22456/2236-6385.134963. Disponível em: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/cadernosdoil/article/view/134963. Acesso em: 28 apr. 2025.

Issue

Section

Artigos de estudos literários