Love Beyond Gender and Sexuality: A Queer Perspective of Chinelo Okparanta’s Under The Udala Trees

Abstract

This study examines the issue of homosexuality using Queer Theory to determine if homosexuality is biological or a social construction. The paper adopts Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees as a case study to ascertain whether same-sex attraction is biologically determined or socially constructed. The paper explores the issue of homophobia and self hatred of homosexuals occasioned by compulsory heterosexuality and heterocentrism of the predominantly heterosexual world. The study further interrogates the concept of biological essentialism, which held that a certain number of human populations are naturally homosexual. Furthermore, the research paper critically engages with cultural, religious and political discourses that shape attitudes towards same-sex love and relationships in Nigeria society. It underscores the role of narrative fiction in challenging dominant ideologies and offering alternatives understandings of gender, identity and sexual desire. The paper highlights how language, social structures, and social expectations contribute to repression or expression of homosexual tendencies. The study draws conclusion that all humans have the capacity to develop, either heterosexual or homosexual feeling depending on one’s priorities, environment and association. The paper discovers and establishes that heterosexuality is biological, while homosexuality lacks substantial evidence to be considered natural; therefore the paper recommends social construction.