DISLOCATION AND DEFENCE MECHANISM IN BUCHI EMECHETA'S SECOND CLASS CITIZEN AND CHIKA UNIGWE'S ON BLACK SISTERS’ STREET

Abstract

This study undertakes a critical examination of the theme of dislocation
and the different levels of defence mechanism in Chika Unigwe's On
Black Sisters’ Street (OBSS) and Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen
(SCC), employing Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory as a
theoretical framework. Utilizing the qualitative content analysis
method, the research investigates the multifaceted forms of dislocation
experienced by the female characters in the chosen literary works and
explores the different levels of defence mechanism they employ in
response to their dislocation experiences. Through the thematic and
textual analysis, the study reveals similar forms of dislocation,
encompassing spatial/geographical, socio-cultural, and psychological
dislocations in both texts, while linguistic dislocation is found in OBSS.
The analysis also reveals the following levels of defence mechanism:
repression, projection, sublimation, denial, and displacement, and
argues that by the circumstances of their dislocation, the female
protagonists are already jinxed to the extent that their defence
mechanisms are not commensurate to the overwhelming tragedy into
which their lives have been entangled. The study therefore concludes
that the female migrant characters are mere ill-fated pawns in the chess
of life, who struggle to retain their sanity as strangers in the much
stranger ‘worlds’ they migrate into.