Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The challenges faced by twenty-first-century youths are increasingly complex in a globalised world where transnational mobility and cross-cultural interactions have become commonplace. There is a need for literary scholars and critics to examine the interactions arising from these transnational contacts, and how they reshape ideological constructions of sexuality and identity. This study investigates how dominant cultural ideologies governing sexuality are represented in Iweala’s Speak No Evil and Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji, and how the texts’ protagonists, viewed through Antonio Gramsci’s theory of the organic intellectual, resist and reshape prevailing social and cultural norms. It also explores how globalisation shapes non-normative identities and creates hybrid spaces of belonging. The findings reveal that sexuality is portrayed in the texts as both a site of control and disruption. This is instantiated by the protagonists’ lived experiences, which unsettle dominant narratives, and open space for alternative, self-defined identities. The findings also establish that organic intellectuals challenge dominant ideologies, creating spaces where sexual expressions intersect with global influences, disrupting cultural hegemony and allowing alternative narratives to emerge. Globalisation and migration act as catalysts that dismantle established norms and foster a more inclusive discourse on sexuality. Ultimately, the primary texts demonstrate that contemporary Nigerian fiction is increasingly interested in reimagining sexuality beyond the binaries of tradition and modernity, offering fluid and intersectional frameworks that expand the possibilities of identity, belonging, and self-expression within a globalised world.
Institution: Delta State University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7208829185