Chinua Achebe - (Black Literary and Cultural Expressions) by Toyin Falola (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Analyzes fictional and historical cartographies of Africa in a full range of Achebe's literary works--novels including Things Fall Apart, but also short stories, poems, and essays--to offer a critical representation of Africa's present and future. The author focuses on the historical valuation of these texts as important contributions to political events in Nigeria and, by extension, Africa. Dwelling on the Nigerian political context upon which many, if not all, of the writer's narratives lie, this book examines methodologies of narration and ideologies that allow his works to resonate with the imagination of Africa"--

Book Synopsis

An imaginative, narratological reading of Chinua Achebe's novels, stories, poetry, and essays through a literary and historical framework.

Toyin Falola analyzes fictional and historical cartographies of Africa in Achebe's literary works to offer a critical representation of Africa's present and future. In particular, he focuses on the historical valuation of a full range of the writer's works - novels including Things Fall Apart, but also short stories, poems, and essays - as important materials that have contributed to the political events in Nigeria and, by extension, Africa.

The raw creativity found in Achebe's stories and his ability to tell the Nigerian story - precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial - have endeared him to many, including readers and those critical of him and his works. Chinua Achebe: Narrating Africa in Fictions and History analyzes all of the writer's works, dwelling on the Nigerian political context upon which many, if not all, of his narratives lie. As a result, it examines methodologies of narration and ideologies that allow his works to resonate with the imagination of Africa.

Review Quotes

"In Chinua Achebe: Narrating Africa in Fictions and History, the respected historian has given new interpretations and perspectives to the works of the renowned writer. In dissecting Achebe's works in twelve solid chapters, readers and scholars are taken on a new journey of rediscovering what might be hitherto unknown about the master of the art of storytelling." --Naija Times

About the Author

Toyin Falola is Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. His publications include Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat, Rebellion, and Philosophy (with Adeshina Afolayan; Bloomsbury, 2022), Wole Soyinka: Literature, Activism, and African Transformation (with Bola Dauda; Bloomsbury, 2021), Understanding Modern Nigeria: Ethnicity, Democracy, and Development (2021), and Nigerian Political Modernity and Postcolonial Predicaments (2016).

Falola has served as the General Secretary of the Historical Society of Nigeria, the President of the African Studies Association, Vice-President of UNESCO Slave Route Project, and the Kluge Chair of the Countries of the South, Library of Congress. He is a member of the Scholars' Council, Kluge Center, the Library of Congress. He has received over 30 lifetime career awards and 14 honorary doctorates.