Tenor and Interpersonal Meaning in Amma Darko’s Fiction: A Feminist Approach

Abstract

Amma Darko overtly identifies herself as a spokeswoman of/for voiceless and defenseless women in her first three novels, Beyond the Horizon (1995), The Housemaid (1998) and Faceless (2003). By choosing women as protagonists of the aforementioned novels, Darko aims at unveiling and satirizing the detrimental effects of patriarchal societies in Africa and advocating for a society wherein exploitation and domination of men do not exist. In her literary works, Darko makes use of linguistic resources. Thus, under the banner of Systemic Functional Linguistics (henceforth, SFL), this work analyzes the tenor of discourse and interpersonal meaning in three extracts drawn from the abovementioned novels. The description and interpretation of the linguistic resources seek to exude how the participants in the selected extracts establish and maintain interpersonal relationships therein. Besides, with the SFL theory, this study aims to unveil the feminist voice and struggle of Darko as encoded in the language of her fiction under scrutiny.