Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Narration

Envisioning Language

Thomas Jay Lynn

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783319513300
• eBook ISBN: 9783319513317
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book examines vital intersections of narration, linguistic innovation, and political insight that distinguish Chinua Achebe's fiction as well as his non-fiction commentaries. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of these intersections: Achebe's narrative response to Western authors who have written on Africa, his integration of Igbo folklore, the political implications of writing African literature in English, his use of Nigerian Pidgin, and the Nigerian Civil War. It also addresses the teaching of Achebe's works. Achebe drew on diverse resources to offer searching psychological and political insights that contribute not only a decidedly African political viewpoint to the modern novel, but also a more inclusive narrative consciousness. Achebe's adaptations of Igbo oral art are intrinsic to his writing's political engagement because they assert the integrity and authority of the African voice in a global order defined by colonialism. This book reveals how his work has helped to restructure a global vision of Africa.

Table of contents

• Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Narration
• 1 Introduction
• 2 An Adequate Revolution: Achebe Writes Africa Anew
• 3 Of Flight, Fraud, and Freedom: Achebe’s Political Tricksters
• 4 Language and Ambivalence in Achebe’s Writing
• 5 Language and the Power of Subordination: Achebe’s Integration of Nigerian Pidgin
• 6 Beyond Black and White: British Identity in Achebe’s Fiction
• 7 Catastrophe, Aftermath, Amnesia: Chinua Achebe’s “Civil Peace”
• 8 Unfolding Dialogue: Teaching Achebe’s Fiction
• 9 Conclusion: The Ends of Narration
• Index