Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction: Receptivity and Gender (Gender and the Body in Literature and Culture)

Book info: Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction: Receptivity and Gender (Gender and the Body in Literature and Culture) (Hardcover, 240 pages) – Edinburgh University Press, 2025. Language: English.

Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction: Receptivity and Gender examines the depictions of men, women and masculinities in Nigerian novels by Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jude Dibia and Chinelo Okparanta. It shows how these writers contest cultural models of manhood and womanhood by portraying characters who articulate openness towards the marginalised and stigmatised in society, thus challenging hegemonic gender and sexual norms. Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike employs receptivity as a theoretical and relational lens to analyse how these writers depict characters who identify with the suffering of others and those living in precarious conditions. This book centres ethics as a crucial element in redefinitions of masculinity. It emphasises the need to appreciate the full humanity of another, especially those the dominant culture usually discriminates against and renders abject in society. Editorial Reviews Review A socially relevant scholarship... Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction expands our sense of and sensibilities towards gender and sexuality. [...] We need Umezurike’s ‘ethic of receptivity’ not only to relate with one another as human equals, but also to recognise the precariousness and grievability of other lives. This recognition may enable us to imagine and create a more egalitarian, more just, more empathetic society where every life will be protected by the nation and the law against cultural and social orthodoxies that insist on their inevitability. Without this, our national ideals, indeed our human ideals, are just what they are: ideals that may not translate into livable futures. -- Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, University of Nebraska-Lincoln ― Global South Literary Studies

Umezurike’s text remains foundational and will inspire insightful debates and meaningful conversations on masculinities and gender in Nigerian and African literature, as it brings literary insight to a discourse on masculinities that has hitherto been dominated by sociological, ethnographic, and medical perspectives. This book is a huge resource for students and scholars of Nigerian/African literature, African cultural studies, African gender and feminist scholars, postcolonial and masculinity scholars and everyone interested in understanding the multidimensionality of gender construction and expression in society. -- Onyeka Odoh ― Journal of the African Literature Association

Dr. Umezurike holds a mirror to the African world. His works are decisively ethical and a breath of fresh air in African scholarship. Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction is an original book that promises to expand the growing interest in the construction of masculinity in the African imagination. -- Chielozona Eze, Carleton College About the Author Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the 2025-2026 Wayne O. McCready Emerging Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary, Canada. He is the author of literary works, such as there’s more (2023), Double Wahala, Double Trouble (2021), Wish Maker (2021), and a co-editor of Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020).