Chinua Achebe 9781139085830, 9780521356237, 9780521428972

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Acknowledgements (page xiii)
List of abbreviations (page xiv)
Chronology (page xv)
Introduction (page 1)
1 Origins (page 4)
2 'A less superficial picture': Things Fall Apart (page 21)
3 'The best lack all conviction': No Longer at Ease (page 42)
4 Religion and power in Africa: Arrow of God (page 64)
5 Courting the voters: A Man of the People (page 83)
6 The novelist as critic: politics and criticism, 1960-1988 (page 102)
7 Marginal lives: Girls at War and Other Stories (page 121)
8 Poetry and war: Beware Soul Brother and Other Poems (page 134)
9 The critic as novelist: Anthills of the Savannah (page 150)
Conclusion (page 165)
Notes (page 174)
Bibliography (page 186)
Index (page 197)

Citation preview

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN LITERATURE 1

CHINUA ACHEBE

This book provides a detailed and up-to-date examination of the writings of Chinua Achebe, Africa’s best-known and most widely read author. Dr Innes studies his writings, lectures and activities chronologically, in the context of Nigerian cultures and politics and their interaction with western cultures and powers. Her analysis goes beyond that of previously published studies, to examine Achebe’s short stories, essays and poetry, and his most recent publications Anthills of the Savannah (1987) and Hopes and Impediments (1988). Particular emphasis is placed upon Achebe’s

departure from European literary models in order to create a new kind of fiction which seeks to challenge the preconceptions

of African and western audiences alike, and which is of considerable literary and political significance.

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CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN LITERATURE Series Editor: Professor Abiola Irele, Ohio State University

Each volume in this unique new series of critical studies will offer a comprehensive and in-depth account of the whole oeuvre of one

individual writer from Africa or the Caribbean, in such a way that the book may be considered a complete coverage of the writer’s expression up to the time the study is undertaken. Attention will be devoted primarily to the works themselves — their

significant themes, governing ideas and formal procedures; biographical and other background information will thus be employed secondarily, to illuminate these aspects of the writer’s work where necessary. The emergence in the twentieth century of black literature in the United States, the Caribbean and Africa as a distinct corpus

of imaginative work represents one of the most notable developments in world literature in modern times. This series has been established to meet the needs of this growing area of

study. It is hoped that it will not only contribute to a wider

understanding of the humanistic significance of modern literature from Africa and the Caribbean through the scholarly presentation of the work of major writers, but also offer a wider framework for the ongoing debates about the problems of interpretation within the disciplines concerned. First title in the sertes

Chinua Achebe, by C. L. Innes, University of Kent at Canterbury Other titles in preparation

Mongo Beti, by Richard Bjornson, Ohio State University Aimé Césaire, by Gregson Davis, Stanford University Rene Depestre, by Joan Dayan, City University of New York Edouard Glissant, by Michael Dash, University of the West Indies Nicolas Guillén, by Josaphat Kubayanda, Ohio State University George Lamming, by Rhonda Cobham, Amherst College V. §. Naipaul, by Fawzia Mustafa, Fordham University Léopold Sédar Senghor, by Abiola Irele, Ohio State University Wole Soyinka, by Biodun Jeyifo, Cornell University

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