The Portrayal of Female Agency in the Mary Karooro Okurut Novel, the Official Wife

Abstract

This article of the Portrayal of Female Agency in The Official Wife (2003) a novel by Mary Karooro Okurut. The article explores forms of female agency and the narrative techniques used to portray female agency in The Official Wife (2003). I classified the forms of female agency into three categories which include; bargaining and negotiation, subversion and resistance, deception and manipulation. I argue that it is these forms through which women show agency. Agency is a crucial matter of focus and I therefore employ a number of narrative styles implored to perfectly bring out the portrayals of female agency including; vivid descriptions, imagery, irony, alliteration, direct speech, dialogue, point of view, indirect speech and others. In the article, I argue that all females deserve to enjoy their freedom and rights like the males because they are both created in the image of God. Some of the female characters in The Official Wife are mistreated, tortured psychologically and treated as the weaker sex. In spite of the trauma, the main character identified as Liz in The Official Wife turns out to be resilient and outspoken due to the problems she encounters. In the article, I also bring out the fact that female characters develop agency as a result of trauma and crisis as according to Pointiere, Mathilinde (2021). Every female in the novel goes through a hardship before they show their abilities. And it is this much trauma that enables females to show off their agency. I further show that females in The Official Wife are resilient, spirited, elastic, irrepressible and outspoken because they do not use physical violence to obtain what they want. They rather use forms of female agency including; subversion and resistance, deception and manipulation through which they deceive and manipulate the people around them in many ways to achieve what they want. Female agency is therefore a crucial matter of focus and it contains three forms which aid women in becoming resilient and successful. All this is discussed as I take a close look at the forms of female agency and the narrative techniques Karooro uses to depict female agency.