Non-Conformist Heroine: The Assertive Female in Alobwed ‘Epie’s The Lady With A Beard

Abstract

Postcolonial discourse has, for the past decade, been a major area of focus for scholarship in the academia. The issues of
alterity, identity, subeltanism, violation, religion, and culture which find expression in post-colonial studies has been debated from multiple
perspective by scholars representing different and varied interests. This suggest therefore that within the framework of Postcolonial studies
the creation of meaning goes along with a vision that maintains that postcolonial societies are caught in complex situations that resist any
single interpretation. These complexities are experienced both at the individual and the societal levels. The expectations, roles and the
issues attached to gender; the assumptions, the constraints, and the benefits of defined gender binarism in postcolonial societies create
avenues for the interpretation and the creation of meaning in a postcolonial text. The Lady With A Beard by Cameroonian novelist and
scholar, Alowbwed ‘Epie, is one of such postcolonial texts that open-up new avenues of discourse on the question gender.