Situatedness, Identity, and Emotions in Buchi Emecheta’s In the Ditch: A Cognitive Approach from Patrick Colm Hogan’s Perspective

Mansouri, Yalda; Bordbari, Zahra; Sharif, Negar

doi:10.22034/ijpie.2026.582961.1231

Situatedness, Identity, and Emotions in Buchi Emecheta’s In the Ditch: A Cognitive Approach from Patrick Colm Hogan’s Perspective

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Yalda Mansouri

Zahra Bordbari

Negar Sharif

Department of English Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/ijpie.2026.582961.1231

Abstract

This research provides a cognitive analysis of Buchi Emecheta’s In the Ditch (1972) through Patrick Colm Hogan’s concepts of situatedness, practical and categorial identity, and emotional memory. Although feminist, postcolonial, migration, and formalist studies have illuminated Emecheta’s representation of social marginality, its cognitive and affective dimensions remain underexplored. Focusing on Adah’s experiences of precarious housing, welfare institutions, racial categorization, work, cultural alienation, and community, the paper examines how material and social environments shape perception, affective judgment, self-conception, and behaviour. Hogan’s distinction between practical and categorial identity clarifies the tension between socially imposed labels and Adah’s practical identity, reflected in skills and strategies developed to navigate disadvantaged circumstances. Repeated exclusion shapes her emotions and expectations through emotional memory. The analysis concludes that Emecheta presents marginality not as deterministic but as dynamic, allowing trust, recognition, and solidarity to gradually revise previously learned expectations and support adaptive forms of social and emotional engagement.

Keywords

Buchi Emecheta

In the Ditch

practical identity

categorial identity

situatedness

Subjects