UoN Repository - University of Nairobi

241 Pages·2014·1.02 MB·English

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE

RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN THE NOVELS OF
CHINUA ACHEBE

KITATA MAKAU

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHOLOSOPHY (PhD) IN
LITERATURE, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

2014
DECLARATION
This thesis is my original work and has not been submitted for a degree in any other University
or Institution.

Signature…………………………………… Date …………………………..………….
Kitata Makau

This research thesis has been submitted for examination with our approval as University
Supervisors.

First Supervisor
Signature…………………………………………….. Date…………………..……………
Dr Alina Rinkanya
Department of Literature
University of Nairobi

Second Supervisor
Signature…………………………………………..…..Date……………………..………………
Professor Chris Wanjala
Department of Literature
University of Nairobi

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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the rhetorical strategies utilized by Chinua Achebe in creating his five
novels: Things fall Apart, No longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People and, Anthills of
the Savannah. Focusing on stylistic elements in the novels, the study acknowledges that Achebe
adopts a deliberate method of telling the story so as to achieve particular effects. The critical
approach accounts for the author‟s awareness of his craft and audience. Utilizing theories of
rhetoric, there is an effort to reconcile the uniqueness of strategies adopted and their intended
political, emotional, linguistic, and intellectual effects on the reader. The integration of theory
and reflections on style leads us to recognize that Achebe did not just write for writing sake; he
had a deliberate persuasive intention. In the process of accounting for this relationship between
the style and the reader, this study strives to identify the textual elements that establish the
patterns in the discourse sequences in which each of the novels of Achebe is organized by
examining the rules of the text‟s generative systems; the particular conventions on how the
Achebe texts generate sense/meaning. The word strategy in this study has military connotations
implying the direction of movements or operations in a literary campaign; both artistic and
ideolological. Each of the Achebe novels is seen as a literary maneuver that has a name and a
justification for the categorization in rhetorical terms. The compositional ingredients that
characterize the novels are sought out and, at the same time, their relation to typical usages and
their singular uniqueness and purpose for use stressed. In the end the study attempts to trace and
account for the developmental patterns and shifts of emphasis in the storytelling strategies in the
novels of Chinua Achebe in an endeavor to evaluate whether the style the author adopts is
integral to his worldview and instructive to the reader.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... viii
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.0 Opening Remarks...................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Objectives ................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3 Rationale for the Study ............................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.5 Definition of Terms................................................................................................................... 5
1.5.1 Archeological Approach……………………………………………………....………..5
1.5.2 Carnivalesque ..................................................................................................................... 5
1.5.3 Discourse............................................................................................................................ 6
1.5.4 Rhetoric .............................................................................................................................. 7
1.5.5 Manicheanism ………………………………………………………………..……...…..8
1.5.6 Monologism………………………………………………………………………..……..8
1.6 Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 9
1.7 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................... 23
1.8 Hypotheses .............................................................................................................................. 26
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1.9 Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................... 28
THE MONOLOGIC APPROACH OF HERO CREATION IN THINGS FALL APART ............ 29
2.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 29
2.1 The Monologic Thesis ............................................................................................................ 31
2.1.1 The „Archeological‟ Approach ........................................................................................ 36
2.1.2The „Propagandist‟ Purpose (Approach) .......................................................................... 41
2.2 The Epic Style ......................................................................................................................... 46
2.3 The Manichean paradigm ....................................................................................................... 49
2.4 The Hero and Marginality ....................................................................................................... 51
2.5 The Heroic Other .................................................................................................................... 54
2.6 The Hero and the Crowd – (the dynamics of the carnival.) .................................................... 59
2.7 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 63

CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................... 64
DISCOURSE AND DIALOGIC RELATIONSHIPS IN NO LONGER AT EASE ...................... 64
3.0 Introduction. ............................................................................................................................ 64
3.1 Author/character Dialogic relationships ................................................................................. 65
3.2 The Hero as Point of view ...................................................................................................... 66
3.3 Self Clarification and self Revelation as a Strategy in Creating Point of view ...................... 76
3.4 Counterpoint in Point of view ................................................................................................. 86
3.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 93
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CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................... 94
AMBIVALENCE, AMBIGUITY AND MONOLOGISM IN ARROW OF GOD...................... 94
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 94
4.2 Ambivalence and Ambiguity .................................................................................................. 96
4.3 Monologising the text ............................................................................................................. 99
4.4 The Authorial Idea in Arrow of God ..................................................................................... 107
4.5 The Dialogic Impersonal Aphorism...................................................................................... 111
4.6The Rejoinder......................................................................................................................... 114
4.7 The Subordinating Discourse ................................................................................................ 117
4.8 Single Directed...................................................................................................................... 120
4.9 The Hidden Dialogicality ...................................................................................................... 123
4.10 The Internal Dialogization .................................................................................................. 126
4.11 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 132

CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................ 134
DOUBLE REFRACTION IN A MAN OF THE PEOPLE ........................................................ 134
5.1 Introduction: A Stylistic Dialectic ........................................................................................ 134
5.2 The Carnivalization of A Man of the People ........................................................................ 138
5.3 The Hero/Narrator Familiarization ....................................................................................... 146
5.4 The Carnival Double and Inertia as Technique .................................................................... 151
5.5 The Memoir Technique in A Man of People ........................................................................ 156
5.6 Crowning and Decrowning ................................................................................................... 162
5.7 The Deconstruction of the Idiom .......................................................................................... 174
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5.8 The Epilogue Technique ....................................................................................................... 179
5.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 181

CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................... 182
STORYTELLING AS AN IDEOGRAMATIC TRIUMVIRATE IN ANTHILLS OF THE
SAVANNAH................................................................................................................................. 182
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 182
6.2 Anthills as Sequence, Contingency and Causality ................................................................ 186
6.3 Kernels and Satellites ............................................................................................................ 193
6.4 Order, Duration and Frequency ............................................................................................ 197
6.5 Non –Narrated Stories........................................................................................................... 201
6.6 Real Author as Narrator ........................................................................................................ 206
6.7 The Implied listener/Reader .................................................................................................. 208
6.8The Narrativised Soliloquy .................................................................................................... 212
6.9 Metalepses............................................................................................................................. 213
6.10 Overt and Covert Narration ................................................................................................ 216
6.11 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 220

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 222

WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 226
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I must salute all the staff of the Department of Literature for their support which they readily
offered during the preparation of this work. I am especially grateful to my two supervisors, Dr.
Alina Rinkanya and Professor Chris Wanjala, who gave me invaluable guidance.

I cannot forget the special support from my colleague, Prof. D.H Kiiru, for taking interest in my
progress. I thank Dr. Tom Odhiambo for providing me with rare reading materials and
encouragement.

I also thank the University of Nairobi for offering me a fee waiver for this work.
I say immense thanks to God.
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DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to Alice Nduku (my lovely daughter).
ALISO
You have made me learn a lot.

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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Opening Remarks
In studies about the African novel, it is inevitable to invoke the name of Chinua Achebe. Since
the publication of Things Fall Apart in 1958, Achebe is regarded as the father of the modern
African novel in English. There is a lot of writing about the author which has resulted largely
from the thematic problems raised by his works.

There is a tendency in such scholarship to avoid a close analysis of the art of the Achebe text
itself. The features in the texts that assert a unique way of stating the point have generally been
glossed over.

For each text, the writer has a method or methods that he utilizes to fulfill the readers‟
expectations (emotive and metalingual). The present study is an attempt to account for the
methods adopted by Achebe to give his novels a distinctive style of expression.

1.1 Statement of the Problem
Achebe‟s novels have persistently been read against the political and cultural debates that they
apparently address. This practice has gradually overwhelmed the permanent fact that Achebe is
first and foremost an artist. This quality is the most distinctive and enduring feature about the
author. The present study seeks to prioritise stylistic elements in the novels, especially, the
rhetorical strategies that the author uses to make his works have their distinguishing aesthetic
qualities and effects.
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