Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{206276,
        author = {Dr. Vandana Khajuria and Dr Mehak Bakshi},
        title = {Negotiating Identity in a Changing Society: A Study of Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {2},
        pages = {1068-1071},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=206276},
        abstract = {This paper examines how the intersection of colonial administrative systems and economic modernization reshapes personal and collective identity in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Through the protagonist Nnu Ego, the novel maps the slow erosion of Igbo cultural identity under the pressure of what this paper terms "colonial technology." Here, technology is defined not merely as mechanical advancement, but as the comprehensive socio-economic machinery of empire, encompassing wage labour, urban infrastructure, and bureaucratic governance. Drawing on postcolonial and feminist theory, particularly the works of Frantz Fanon, Ifi Amadiume, and Doreen Massey, this study argues that Emecheta frames colonial modernity as a site where power, gender, and identity are violently renegotiated. By grounding its theoretical claims in close textual analysis of Nnu Ego's spatial and economic displacement in Lagos, the paper demonstrates how the novel voices the silent grief of women caught between a traditional order that has failed them and a modern world designed to exclude them.},
        keywords = {Postcolonial Feminism Gender and Space Colonial Technology Economic Modernisation Maternal Identity Urban Displacement Frantz Fanon},
        month = {July},
        }