Ömer ÖĞÜNÇ

As one of the important novelists in the postcolonial era, Buchi Emecheta may be thought to be a pioneering figure in English literature in terms of her representation of colonial issues in Nigeria and Britain. Although she has not received much critical attention as she deserved, Emecheta narrates her own experiences in Nigeria, a former British colony after the independence, and in Britain as an immigrant. Emecheta represents the problematic relationships in the native African community and the British society in her novel Second Class Citizen. The novel is quite significant in terms of the illustration of the protagonist Adah Obi’s attempt to adopt social values imposed on the native community in line with the colonial discourse although it takes place in the postcolonial era. This article argues that the female protagonist Adah Obi suffers from the patriarchal and colonial discourses dominant in the contemporary Nigerian and British societies and Adah is portrayed as the ultimate other due to her disadvantageous position as a black, a woman and an immigrant.

Keywords: Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen, Nigeria, Britain, postcolonial, mimicry, the other