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Abstract
MR. AND MRS. DOCTOR explores the experience of a Nigerian immigrant couple that has entered into an arranged marriage and begun their new life in the United States as immigrants. The couple's negotiation of the harsh reality they face, the lies they live, and the dreams and mythologies that bolster their identities as Africans are the basis of the tension that sets the story in motion. While I attempt to explore the implications of Ifi, the protagonist's experience as a former house girl who enters an arranged marriage and immigrates to the United States—one of the only avenues of upward mobility available to a woman in her social position—I also attempt to reveal the complex negotiations of power that migration and post-modernity allow women.
In addition, informed by immigration studies scholar John Arthur's concept of the "invisible sojourner," in this novelistic pursuit I explore the unique questions of race that the couple encounters in their daily lives; namely, how do African migrations reveal the complexities of race, nation, and economics as they pertain to our global postmodern age?
