Redefining the Women's Space: A Frame Analysis of Thomas Ajayi’s Moremi the Courageous Queen

Abstract

This study, from a cognitive pragmatics perspective, examines how Thomas Ajayi’s Moremi demystifies male domination in a patriarchal formation. Findings unveil that the writer deploys three major contextual frame models on which other frames operate to attract readers' cognitive attention to the position of the discourse. The first frame model, conveys what exists” as a societal norm in a sociocultural context where men place women in a subordinate position. The second, instantiates “what happens” where the text through litanies of events downplays men's spurious ego and underscores female bravery with the emergence of a woman from a supposedly weak vessel to a societal liberator, and the third, enunciates “what matters” which foregrounds the writer’s perspective in redefining a dynamic structure that permeates men and women activities despite their biological differences. Within these larger frame models, one finds the use of interrogatives, allusion, contrast, and metaphor among others intertwining as windowing of attention to signal remarks that are stereotypically feminine. Fifteen texts are purposively selected using Gitlin’s (1980) and Fairhurst & Sarr’s (1996) frame models. Such conception of the discourse enhances readers' cognitive comprehension and interpretation of the discourse from the perspective of the author in redefining the woman’s space