Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Since its publication in 1958 Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart has won global critical acclaim and is regarded as one of the most influential texts of postcolonial literature. Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, this is both a tragic and moving story of an individual set in the wider context of the coming of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters.\ This guide to Chinua Achebe's compelling novel...
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Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, Things Fall Apart is both a tragic and moving story of an individual set in the wider context of the coming of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters.This guide to Chinua Achebe’s compelling novel offers:an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Things Fall Aparta critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present a selection of critical writing on Things Fall Apart, by Abiola Irele, Abdul JanMohamed, Biodun Jeyifo, Florence Stratton and Ato Quayson, providing a variety of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey sectioncross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticismsuggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Things Fall Apart and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Achebe’s text.
Acknowledgements ixNotes and references xIntroduction xi1 Text and contexts 1The author 3The text 6Literary contexts 15Cultural contexts 222 Critical history 35Introduction and early critical reception 37Authenticity and the question of universality 39Nationalist approaches 42Achebe and African literary language 44Anthropological approaches 48Universalism as humanism 52Nationalist universalist humanism 57Marxist criticism 62Feminist approaches 64The intervention of postcolonial theory 66Conclusion 753 Critical readings 77Extract from 'The Tragic Conflict in the Novels of Chinua Achebe' Abiola Irele 79Extract from 'Sophisticated Primitivism: The Syncretism of Oral and Literate Modes in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"' Abdul JanMohamed 85Extract from 'For Chinua Achebe: The Resilience and the Predicament of Obierika' Biodum Jeyifo 93'How Could Things Fall Apart For Whom They Were Not Together?' Florence Stratton 104Extract from 'Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart' Ato Quayson 1204 Further reading and web resources 129Notes on contributors 137Bibliography 138Index 143
