Institute of Languages (INSTL)

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Constructs of Postcolonial Space and Identity in Women’s Fiction
(East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 2025) Ocan, Johnson; Namara, Sharon; Kwizera, Gad; Ainemababazi, Norah
This study examines women fictionists’ engagement with the interwoven themes of conflict trauma, the pursuit of education, and duplicity in Beatrice Lamwaka’s Butterfly Dreams and Monica Arac de Nyeko’s Jambula Tree. It argues that these authors construct narrative spaces which reflect contemporary realities where their heroines assert autonomy, reconstruct identities, inscribe painful memories, and confront postcolonial tensions in northern Uganda during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency. Using textual analysis, the research interrogates the weight of postcolonial governance through critical concerns such as gender, post-traumatic stress disorder, armed conflict, educational aspiration, and sexuality—particularly in Uganda’s sociopolitical context, where same-sex relationships are criminalised. Findings indicate that women fiction writers employ the postcolonial framework to anchor their narratives in historical tragedy, advocate for sociopolitical transformation, affirm individuality, and pursue emancipation through the written word.