...Post-colonial has become useful because it raises large and important questions. Therefore, the widest definition of post colonial fiction easily includes Chinua Achebe’s novels. Postcolonial study delineates all aspects of the colonial process from the beginning to the end of colonial contact. Chinua Achebe’s novels contain the experiences of Nigerian people after the end of British Empire. Achebe’s novels are the replication of African history as well. Therefore, his novels describe an archetypal post colonial era African country. Chinua Achebe is one of the finest Nigerian novelists of the twentieth century, whose novels show various post colonial aspects in them. Achebe throws light on the changes in African society and politics, His four novels cover the entire colonial history of Africa from the early days of European advent to the post colonial aspects like retrieval of an identity and own past, language liberty, cultural change, disestablishment of Eurocentric norms and complexes of this period of perplexity. Achebe wrote novels chronologically one is attached to another as, pre-colonial, colonial, post colonial and commonwealth. Chinua Achebe has depicted traditional Igbo society and African history through writing his novels chronologically. His opening novel Things fall Apart has given trace on the conflict between Igbo and Western customs through the character of Okonkwo, a proud village leaders whose refusal to adapt to the encroaching European influences...
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...Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts To cite this article: Jarica Linn Watts (2010) “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46:1, 65-75, DOI: 10.1080/17449850903478189 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449850903478189 Published online: 27 Jan 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 501 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjpw20 Download by: [Indiana University Libraries] Date: 24 February 2016, At: 16:43 Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2010, 65–75 “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases...
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...will glorify only the hunter.” Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty.It encompasses all genres of literature-poetry,prose,fiction,drama,philosophy,history etc.Among them,fiction is any narrative,whether in prose or verse,which is invented instead of being an account of events that actually happened. The voice of Africa in the world of letters tries to emancipate Africa from its literary stereotype.Africa is no longer a gloomy phenomenon,a dark continent.Chinua Achebe, the major exponent of the modern African novel,is greatly concerned with the two realities of social man –his individual and group identity,the legacy of colonialism, and the shift in the system of values of life leading to rampant corruption- moral and monetary. He is also concerned with the use of English as the medium of expression of African experience defining the relevance of colonial and post-colonial experience to the present .Achebe’s novels are dialectic tranformation of experience, a new way of looking at tradition to create a different order of reality through universalizing imagination.Though he has followed the established tradition of novel writing in English, Achebe has put few things ‘African’ and has successfully employed certain narrative techniques of narration to give authenticity and African flavour to his novels in order to attract the native audience and overseas readers as well. Chinua Achebe , the doyen of African writing...
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...English Dr. Swaralipi Nandi 18-09-2014 Theme of Colonialism in ‘Things Fall Apart’ Introduction : Poet and novelist Chinua Achebe was one of the most important Africanwriters. He was also considered by many to be one of the most original literary artists writing in English during his lifetime. He is best known for his novel Things Fall Apart (1958). Born Albert Chinualumogo Achebe, Chinua Achebe was raised by Christian evangelical parents in the large village Ogidi, in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria. He received an early education in English, but grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial legacy. He studied literature and medicine at the University of Ibadan; after graduating, he went to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos and later studied at the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school in London. During this time, Achebe was developing work as a writer. Starting in the 1950s, he was central to a new Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of Nigeria's indigenous tribes. Although Achebe wrote in English, he attempted to incorporate Igbo vocabulary and narratives. Things Fall Apart (1958) was his first novel, and remains his best-known work. It has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Chinua Achebe’s “African Trilogy” : Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God captures a society caught between...
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...Colonization and Cultural Change in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe There is a major importance of customs and traditions in the African nations. The customs and traditions decide the fate of the men, women, and children of each separate tribe, as well as how the men are viewed from neighboring tribes. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart achieves the paradoxical effect of enabling African tribal life to be accessible to western society, while simultaneously excluding it. The incursion of the colonizing force is changing or threatening to change almost every aspect of their society: religion, family structure, gender roles, relations, and trade. In this novel Achebe uses the term Locusts to symbolize the arrival of white settlers who will feast on and exploit the resources of the Igbo. Achebe aims to show that Africa is not the uncivilized, simple country that it is portrayed as by other cultures. His work aims to show the reader to understand the tribe and assist the reader to think about the reasoning behind the beliefs that may be viewed as odd or illogical. For instance; that a child should be murdered or the spirits of the dead must be appeased, if not it can have grave consequences for some tribal members. Or the tribal concept of 'bloating' they simply take people suffering with it to the evil forest and leave them for dead, to them this perfectly logical. Paul Brians (Washington State University, 2002) states that "its most striking feature is to create...
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...In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the protagonist, represents the manly ideal in a native African society of the Igbo that puts great value on masculinity. He prides himself on the fact that he became a well-respected member of the community with little help from others. However, he is not without flaws. When European powers begin colonizing Africa, Okonkwo finds his way of life disrupted. His greatest challenge becomes accepting the beliefs of others and relating to the majority. Okonkwo resists change, trying to hold onto the old way of life. In Things Falls Apart, Okonkwo proves himself to be a notorious anti-hero as he struggles with his own self-image, rules his household with fear, and rejects changes in his society upon the arrival of the white man. Okonkwo’s own destruction is a result of his high expectations and obsession with toughness. His father, Unoka, was a good-spirited but generally unproductive member of the community. He acquired no fortune and preferred music and story-telling to hard physical labor. Okonkwo dismissed his father’s outlook on life as foolish, and devoted his time to masculine things such as wrestling, sharecropping, and the acquisition of titles. The culture of their tribe is to judge an individual based on their strength and proficiency, or lack thereof. To appear sentimental would be a reflection of his father’s persona. It is Okonkwo’s greatest fear to be judged as inept or weak. When the Oracle of the Hills demands...
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...The Tragic Hero– A Common Thread of Two Colonialist Works Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”and Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” are two well-established literary works stemming from colonialist efforts that overtook Africa in the 1890s. These works portray the conflict between Nigeria’s new-founded white colonial government and the traditional culture of the native African, Igbo people. Through analyzing main characters from each work, Okonkwo and Kurtz in both novels, respectively, portray the role of the tragic hero. Both are introduced in their stories as high-ranking characters, each corrupted by their individual, tragic flaws, which ultimately leads to their fall (or death). In considering their individual plotlines, Okonkwo, however, provides the best depiction of what the idealistic tragic hero ultimately encompasses. Three differences to be accounted for within this common framework include their difference in point-of-view in the storylines, and their resulting tragic flaws, where Okonkwo is a African man within the Igbo tribe; whereas, Kurtz is an upper-class, white European, who becomes obsessed in his exploitation of Africa for its resources, mainly ivory. Secondly, while both men could be considered civilized characters, who acted in abiding to the norms of the African community, Kurtz had more a invasive and corruptive, ’god-like’ power in the story which influenced the African peoples as a whole, where; on the other-hand, Okonkwo was portrayed as more of...
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...Manila University 10 February 2014 Of Interpreters, Schools, and Courts: An Analysis of the Postcolonial Themes of Language, Education, and Power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Through his awareness of the European literary tradition of negatively stereotyping the African natives as uncivilized peoples and putting the West in the pedestal in terms of cultural superiority and advancement (Guthrie 51-52), it can be asserted that the renowned African novelist and intellectual Chinua Achebe may had realized, at one point in his life, that in order to have a more realistic portrayal of the dynamics of Western and non-Western contact, there is a need to break such convention which undeniably favours the West. Perhaps, this is the reason why Achebe had written Things Fall Apart in such a way that it provides readers the African point of view of culture, identity and colonization thereby eradicating the dominant and unwarranted perception that the peoples of Africa are mere savages that have no customs, beliefs and traditions. Indeed, by providing a somewhat balanced approach in portraying the dynamic societal changes experienced by the Ibo people due to the conflict between their traditional culture and the foreign culture brought by their English colonizers primarily through religious and educational instruction, Things Fall Apart indubitably qualifies as a relevant and interesting novel that can be analysed through the lens of postcolonial discourse. Since the novel...
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...From Warrior to Ruin In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the protagonist, represents the manly ideal in a native African society of the Igbo that puts great value on masculinity. He prides himself on the fact that he became a well-respected member of the community with little help from others. However, he is not without flaws. When European powers begin colonizing Africa, Okonkwo finds his way of life disrupted. His greatest challenge becomes accepting the beliefs of others and relating to the majority. Okonkwo resists change, trying to hold onto the old way of life. In Things Falls Apart, Okonkwo proves himself to be a notorious anti-hero as he struggles with his own self-image, rules his household with fear, and rejects changes in his society upon the arrival of the white man. Okonkwo’s own destruction is a result of his high expectations and obsession with toughness. His father, Unoka, was a good-spirited but generally unproductive member of the community. He acquired no fortune and preferred music and story-telling to hard physical labor. Okonkwo dismissed his father’s outlook on life as foolish, and devoted his time to masculine things such as wrestling, sharecropping, and the acquisition of titles. The culture of their tribe is to judge an individual based on their strength and proficiency, or lack thereof. To appear sentimental would be a reflection of his father’s persona. It is Okonkwo’s greatest fear to be judged as inept or weak. When the Oracle...
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...About Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe's college work sharpened his interest in indigenous Nigerian cultures. He had grown up in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria. His father taught at the missionary school, and Achebe witnessed firsthand the complex mix of benefit and catastrophe that the Christian religion had brought to the Igbo people. In the 1950s, an exciting new literary movement grew in strength. Drawing on indigenous Nigerian oral traditions, this movement enriched European literary forms in hopes of creating a new literature, in English but unmistakably African. Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is one of the masterpieces of 20th century African fiction. Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s, during the coming of the white man to Nigeria. In part, the novel is a response and antidote to a large tradition of European literature in which Africans are depicted as primitive and mindless savages. The attitudes present in colonial literature are so ingrained into our perception of Africa that the District Commissioner, who appears at the end of the novel, strikes a chord of familiarity with most readers. He is arrogant, dismissive of African "savages," and totally ignorant of the complexity and richness of Igbo life. Yet his attitude echoes so much of the depiction of Africa; this attitude, following Achebe's depiction of the Igbo, seems hollow and savage. Digression is one of Achebe's most important tools. Although the novel's central story is the tragedy of Okonkwo...
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...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
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...An Introduction to Sociolinguistics AITA01 1 5/9/05, 4:36 PM Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics The books included in this series provide comprehensive accounts of some of the most central and most rapidly developing areas of research in linguistics. Intended primarily for introductory and post-introductory students, they include exercises, discussion points, and suggestions for further reading. 1. Liliane Haegeman 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Andrew Spencer Helen Goodluck Ronald Wardhaugh Martin Atkinson Diane Blakemore Michael Kenstowicz Deborah Schiffrin John Clark and Colin Yallop 10. 11. 12. 13. Natsuko Tsujimura Robert D. Borsley Nigel Fabb Irene Heim and Angelika Kratzer 14. Liliane Haegeman and Jacqueline Guéron 15. Stephen Crain and Diane Lillo-Martin 16. Joan Bresnan 17. Barbara A. Fennell 18. Henry Rogers 19. Benjamin W. Fortson IV 20. AITA01 Liliane Haegeman 2 Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (Second Edition) Morphological Theory Language Acquisition Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Fifth Edition) Children’s Syntax Understanding Utterances Phonology in Generative Grammar Approaches to Discourse An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (Second Edition) An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics Modern Phrase Structure Grammar Linguistics and Literature Semantics in Generative Grammar English Grammar: A Generative Perspective An Introduction to Linguistic Theory and Language...
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...E SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography Allida M. Black, ed., Modern American Queer History Eric Sandweiss, St. Louis: The Evolution of an American Urban Landscape Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past Sharon Hartman Strom, Political Woman: Florence Luscomb and the Legacy of Radical Reform Michael Adas, ed., Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History Jack Metzgar, Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered Janis Appier, Policing Women: The Sexual Politics of Law Enforcement and the LAPD Allen Hunter, ed., Rethinking the Cold War Eric Foner, ed., The New American History. Revised and Expanded Edition E SSAYS ON _ T WENTIETH- C ENTURY H ISTORY Edited by ...
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