Gender palava

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In times of armed conflict, the myth persists that women suffer silently. However, many refuse to be mere victims, taking up arms or violating legal and moral codes to survive, thus occupying new spaces and perspectives. The Nigerian Civil War (1967-70), which resulted in over a million civilian deaths, particularly in Biafra, has significantly influenced Nigerian literature, notably in Chimamanda Adichie's acclaimed novel. Despite this, women's contributions to civil war literature have largely been overlooked. Marion Pape's study investigates the reasons for this neglect, highlighting how women writers challenge established binaries like "peaceful woman" and "combatant man." They portray war as "wo/man palava," a term from Chikwenye Ogunyemi's work, which Pape connects to Judith Butler's concept of "gender trouble," examining the "sexual disorder" that war creates. This study is a vital contribution to the discourse on gender and war, as Pape comprehensively defines and critically analyzes the body of Nigerian Civil War literature by women, offering the first complete overview of this overlooked corpus.