Societal Hegemony and the Evolution of Masculinity in Francis Selormey’s The Narrow Path and Asare Konadu’s A Woman in Her Prime

Abstract

Francis Selormey’s The Narrow Path and Asare Konadu’s A Woman in Her Prime are two novels that add to the rich Ghanaian literary tradition through their exploration of human relationships and the roles men play in these relationships. Despite gaining a cult readership, these texts have largely been ignored by scholars. This paper examines the men in these texts to reveal the images of masculinities presented and show whether or not they follow society’s hegemonic model or create their own paths. This paper argues that the societies presented by these novels do not allow for a rejection of hegemony, and the male characters in these novels unknowingly follow society’s ideal masculine values. By using the theory of masculinities as a character study tool, the differences in the gender performance of the male characters in the pre-colonial and colonial eras are made clear and control is established as an ideology of the colonial era.