Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Narration: Envisioning Language

181 Pages·2017·8.98 MB·English

by  Thomas Jay Lynn (auth.)

African Histories and Modernities
Series Editors
Toyin Falola
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas, USA
Matthew M. Heaton
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, USA
“In this fine study, Thomas Jay Lynn outlines howAchebe ‘navigated a course that
affirmedbothAfricanandEuropeanlinguistictraditions’inthevividdeploymentof
threelanguages:English,IgboandNigerianPidgin.Moreover,Lynnshows,Achebe’s
workconnectedthetwo‘storytellingrealms’oforatureandliterature,linkingthepast
withthepresent‘throughthestory.’Astute,meticulousandfreshinitsfocus,Lynn’s
studyisanotablecontributiontoAchebestudies.”
—AnnieGagiano,authorofAchebe,Head,Marechera:OnPower
andChangeinAfrica(2000)
“Thisfirst major study since Achebe’sdeath in 2013 re-envisionshis six-decade career
throughthetwinlensesoflanguageandnarration.ThomasJayLynn’silluminatinglong
perspective, which integrates discussion of Achebe’s fiction and nonfiction, offers new
insightsintoAfrica’smosticonicwriterandthepostcolonialpoliticsofnarration.Other
distinguishingfeaturesincludewelcomechaptersonthemuch-anthologizedshortstory
‘CivilPeace’andoncross-culturalstrategiesforteachingAchebe’sfiction.Comprehensive,
lucid,andaccessible,ChinuaAchebeandthePoliticsofNarration:EnvisioningLanguage
willproveindispensabletoscholars,teachers,andstudentsalike.”
—DrPeterBlair,SeniorLecturerinEnglish,UniversityofChester,UK
“ThomasJayLynn’swelcomestudyremindsreadersthatAfrica’smostfamousnovelist
has been central to the continent’s literary preoccupations: corrupt politicians and
resistanttricksters,colonizinglanguageandoralcreativity,subterraneanincivilityand
carnivalesquerelease.Throughout,Lynnshowsthedangersoftooeasilyoverlooking
the tense Janus-like gaze of this deceptively pellucid author, who always sees the
complexityattheheartofeverything.”
—JohnC.Hawley,Professor,DepartmentofEnglish,SantaClaraUniversity
This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions to
andnegotiationsofdiversemodernitiesovertimeandspace,withaparti-
cularemphasisonhistoricaldevelopments.Specifically,itaimstorefutethe
hegemonicconceptionofasingularmodernity,Westerninorigin,spread-
ingouttoencompasstheglobeoverthelastseveraldecades.Indeed,rather
than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or parameters, the series instead
lookstoreceiveandrespondtochangingperspectivesonanimportantbut
inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space in which multiple
modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While privileging works
thatemphasizehistoricalchangeovertime,theserieswillalsofeaturescho-
larship that blurs the lines between the historical and the contemporary,
recognizingthewaysinwhichourchangingunderstandingsofmodernityin
the present havethe capacity toaffectthe waywethink aboutAfrican and
globalhistories.
EditorialBoard
AderonkeAdesanya, ArtHistory, JamesMadison University
KwabenaAkurang-Parry, History,Shippensburg University
SamuelO.Oloruntoba,History,UniversityofNorthCarolina,
Wilmington
Tyler Fleming,History,University of Louisville
BarbaraHarlow,EnglishandComparativeLiterature,UniversityofTexas
at Austin
Emmanuel Mbah, History,Collegeof StatenIsland
AkinOgundiran,AfricanaStudies,UniversityofNorthCarolina,
Charlotte
More information aboutthisseries at
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ThomasJayLynn
Chinua Achebe
and the Politics
of Narration
Envisioning Language
ThomasJayLynn
PennStateBerks
Reading,USA
AfricanHistoriesandModernities
ISBN978-3-319-51330-0 ISBN978-3-319-51331-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51331-7
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For Jessica, OurChildren,Our Families
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to so many people, including
those mentioned here. Their work, ideas, influence, and kindness made
thisbookpossible:
Jessica Hirsch Lynn, who most generously facilitated this volume at
every stage. M. Keith Booker, my professor, whose knowledge, teaching,
patience, offered opportunities, and work on my behalf comprise an
incalculable benefit. Maia Edmunds, bright, organized, and giving Penn
StateBerksstudent,whocontributedextensivelytothefinalstagesofthis
book. Chidi Achebe, Charles Adams, Mitzi Brandon, Mayne Chanania,
ErnstConrad,NathalieConrad,GraceO.Davis,ElliottDenniston,Alyce
Depree,JoyDworkin,PaulEsqueda,AnnaEsterly,KennethFifer,Laurie
Grobman,ClaudiaLynnHaluska,RichardHeavenrich,R.KeithHillkirk,
John R. Locke, David H. Lynn, Sr., David H. Lynn, Jr., Deborah G.
Lynn, Janet Lynn, Michelle Mart, Danielle Moser, Belén Rodríguez-
Mourelo, Tomas René, Brigitte Shull, Stanley Sultan, Carla Verderame,
Brian Wilkie, Emily Williams, and the many students at Penn State Berks
who have engaged, challenged, and enlarged my thinking about Achebe
andcountless othertopics.
vii
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 AnAdequate Revolution:Achebe Writes AfricaAnew 23
3 OfFlight,Fraud, andFreedom: Achebe’s
PoliticalTricksters 41
4 LanguageandAmbivalence in Achebe’sWriting 77
5 Languageandthe Power ofSubordination: Achebe’s
IntegrationofNigerian Pidgin 97
6 BeyondBlack andWhite: BritishIdentity
inAchebe’s Fiction 111
7 Catastrophe,Aftermath, Amnesia: ChinuaAchebe’s
“Civil Peace” 127
8 UnfoldingDialogue:Teaching Achebe’sFiction 143
9 Conclusion: TheEnds of Narration 167
Index 171
ix
CHAPTER1
Introduction
I. ENVISIONING LANGUAGE AND THE POLITICS OF NARRATION
This volume examines vital intersections of narration, linguistic innova-
tion,andpoliticalinsightthatdistinguishChinuaAchebe’sfictionaswell
as his non-fiction commentaries. Each chapter emphasizes a different
aspect of these intersections, but a more general understanding informs
this exploration. Achebe’s literary and cultural impact arises from his
manner of interlacing African cultural and linguistic traditions, often
those of his own Igbo people, with Western-influenced fictional dis-
courses.Drawingonthesediverseresourcesheofferssearchinghistorical,
psychological,andpoliticalinsightsinhisfictionandnon-fictionalike.In
therealmoffictiontheseinsightscontributetothemodernnovelnotonly
adecidedlyAfricanpoliticalviewpoint,butalsoamoreinclusivenarrative
consciousness. Achebe’s own consciousness as a writer was shaped by his
immersion in both African and Western discourses and by his moral
urgency. His work is widely admired for its dignified narrative voice,
probing storytelling, and pioneering role in bringing African language
and culture into a new relationship with English and the West. Bernth
LindforsremarksthatAchebe“literallycreatedatechniquethathadnever
beenseenbefore:tosimulateanAfricanlanguageinEnglish”(Keynote).
ThistechniqueandAchebe’sproseadaptationsofIgbooralartareintrin-
sic to his writing’s political engagement because they assert the integrity
andauthorityoftheAfricanvoiceinaglobalorderdefinedbycolonialism.
©TheAuthor(s)2017 1
T.J.Lynn,ChinuaAchebeandthePoliticsofNarration,African
HistoriesandModernities,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51331-7_1
2 1 INTRODUCTION
IngivingliteraryexpressiontotheAfricanperspectiveonAfricaandthe
world, Achebe could not avoid writing politically engaged books.1 As he
noted in a 1988 presentation at the University of Texas, “things are
generally all right from the [Western] view. That’s because the West
runs the world. But from the view of Africa and Third World countries,
theworldisupsidedownandneedstobetotallyreordered.Whenpeople
saymybooksaretoopolitical,thisisthereason”(ObregonD4).Achebe
narratesinarealisticvein,andheasksustoseehiswritingnotaspolitical
expression alone, but rather as an authentic articulation of the cultural
environment he inhabits, an environment permeated by political aware-
ness. Extricating political pressures from representations of that environ-
ment would be as unsound and fruitless as extricating, say, religion from
representations of the traditional Igbo culture. Of necessity, in other
words, does political awareness permeate Achebe’s narration because the
story he tells challenges both long-standing Western structures of know-
ingAfricaandthepremisesofcolonialismitself.AsSimonGikandirecog-
nizes, “it is through words that colonial culture inscribes its presumed
superiorityovertheAfricanculture”(ReadingtheAfricanNovel162),so
intheirinceptionwordssuchasAchebe’sthatdestabilizethispresumption
arepolitically resonant.
In reshaping the English-language discourse on Africa that was
enshrinedinbooksbyEuropeanauthors,Achebeinterruptstheencoding
of power that supported colonialism and other forms of Western cultural
dominationinAfrica.YetAchebeprovesadeptaswellatnarratingagainst
thegrainofcertainpowerfulAfricandiscourses,recognizingthatcounter-
narratives bearing on established societal attitudes are always politically
significant,sincetheypotentiallymodifytheacceptanceandapplicationof
power in social and political spheres. If we expand our understanding of
Achebe’s politically resonant blending of discourses, of his vision of con-
structive relationships between language, storytelling, culture, and poli-
tics,thenwewillbettergrasponeoftheenduringcontributionstoAfrican
and world literature, and to a global understanding of Africa, of the last
100years.2Thatcontribution’stransformativevaluemaybegleanedfrom
a comment by Nelson Mandela: “There was a writer named Chinua
Achebe...in whose company the prison walls fell down” (qtd. in Innes,
“Chinua Achebe Obituary”). Gikandi recalls, moreover, that reading
Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), while in school in Kenya
“change[d] the lives of many of us” (Foreword vii). Writing of such
consequence possesses, needless to say, exceptional qualities, and those