FRAGMENTED IDENTITIES AND ANONYMITY IN LITERATURE AND AI

Abstract

This paper examines Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2009) using the theoretical framework, postcolonial feminism and digital surveillance ethics. It explores how Unigwe’s narrative of four Nigerian ladies who disguise and remodel their individualities links to modern day concerns of online identity, visibility, and anonymity. The paper reasons that the author’s treatment of masking reflects the act of artificial intelligence (AI) assembling and utilizing of personal data to generate “avatars” or digital versions of people. Though anonymity can shield individuals, it can also intensify manipulation and invisibility. Through the connection of literature and technological ethics, this work portrays how Unigwe’s literary work aids the comprehension of the ethical challenges of visibility and invisibility in a monitored digital world. In achieving this, the researcher utilizes qualitative interpretative research method which is ideal for examining complex social constructs such as identity, anonymity, agency and surveillance. The paper concludes that fragmented identities and anonymity function jointly, supporting forces within On Black Sisters’ Street, determining the characters’ experiences and revealing wider effects for understanding identity in the age of AI and digital surveillance.