A Comparative Analysis of Determinants of Family Identity in Selected Plays by Henrik Ibsen and John Ruganda

https://doi.org/10.58256/njhs.v1i3.773

Authors

Abstract

Allegiance to social categories is a universally acknowledged human phenomenon. Being a social category, family identity is an important function of human co-existence. This article analyses the traits that are emblematic of a harmonious and functional family and those that lead to its breakup thereof. Having been derived from this critic’s Ph.D. thesis, truncation of detailed information has been employed to reach the necessary summary condign for a journal article. The analysis is thematic in approach and theory guided. Brecht’s Realist Marxism has been used as a tool to interpret the meanings borne in the selected plays derived from Ibsen’s and Ruganda’s oeuvre: A Doll´s House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and Hedda Gabler (1890) were taken from Ibsen’s while The Burdens (1972), Black Mamba (1973) and Shreds of Tenderness (2001) were taken from Ruganda’s. The analysis found out that traits called love (and not the mere fact of sharing blood ancestry), ranging from honesty to sensibility, selflessness to compassion make families succeed while competition for dominance to greed and selfishness; indifference to a desire to gain absolute control over others; violence and murder and/or suicide see  families doomed to failure. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Dimensions

Brownmiller, S. (1975). Against our will: Men, Women and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Eagleton, T. (1990). Edebtyat Kurami. Instabul: Ayrinti Yayinev.

Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. London: Horgand.

Iyabode, D. (2014). Nawal El Saadawi and the Woman Question. Journal of English Language and Literature, 2, 121-124.

Khaleeli, H. (2015). Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt’s Radical Feminist. The Guardian.

Koseli, Y. (2013). Psychoanalytic Approach to Elsaadawi’s Memoirs of a Woman’s Doctor. The Journal of International Social Research, 6: 171-211.

Mitchell, J. (1974). Psychoanalysis and Feminism. New York. Vintage.

Saadawi E., N. (1980). The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. London: Zed books.

Saadawi, E., N. (1983). Woman at Point Zero. London: Zed Books.

Saadawi E., N. (1985a). God Dies by the Nile. London: Zed Books.

Saadawi E., N. (1985b) Müzekkirât Tabîbe. Cairo: Dâru'l-Me'ârif.

Saadawi E., N. (1987). She has no Place in Paradise. London: Methuen.

Saadawi E., N. (1994). Memoirs of a Woman’s Doctor. London: Methuen.

Saadawi E., N. (1999). A Daughter of Isis. London: Zed Books.

Shihada, I. (2007). The Patriarchal Class System in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile. Nebula. 5: 162-182.

Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory. New York: Routledge.

Published

2022-04-28

How to Cite

Nyagemi, B. (2022). A Comparative Analysis of Determinants of Family Identity in Selected Plays by Henrik Ibsen and John Ruganda. Nairobi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.58256/njhs.v1i3.773

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 3 (2017)

Section

Articles
Copyright & Licensing

Copyright (c) 2022 Bwocha Nyagemi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-NC-SA) license.

You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. 

Under the following terms: 

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. 

No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC