Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation

Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation

Chinua Achebe is recognized as one of Africa's most important and influential writers, and his novels have focused on the ways in which the European tradition of the novel and African modes of expression relate to each other in both complementary and contesting ways. Achebe's novels are in...

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Main Author: Simon Gikandi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: New Prairie Press 1991-01-01
Series:Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Online Access:http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol15/iss1/4
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spelling doaj-a181d9eb184949d3bfd67a34a49de0392020-11-24T23:28:21ZengNew Prairie PressStudies in 20th & 21st Century Literature2334-44151991-01-0115110.4148/2334-4415.12635612159Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National FormationSimon GikandiChinua Achebe is recognized as one of Africa's most important and influential writers, and his novels have focused on the ways in which the European tradition of the novel and African modes of expression relate to each other in both complementary and contesting ways. Achebe's novels are informed by an important theory of writing which tries to mediate the politics of the novel as a form of commentary on the emergence and transformation of nationalism which constitutes the African writer's epistemological context. Achebe's esthetic has been overdetermined by the changing discourse on representation and national identity in colonial and post-colonial Africa. His anxious quest for a post-colonial esthetic is predicated on the belief that narrative can enable the writer to express an alternative order of things opposed to realities imprisoned by imperialism and Western domination.http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol15/iss1/4
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Simon Gikandi
spellingShingle Simon Gikandi
Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
author_facet Simon Gikandi
author_sort Simon Gikandi
title Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
title_short Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
title_full Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
title_fullStr Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
title_full_unstemmed Chinua Achebe and the Post-colonial Esthetic: Writing, Identity, and National Formation
title_sort chinua achebe and the post-colonial esthetic: writing, identity, and national formation
publisher New Prairie Press
series Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
issn 2334-4415
publishDate 1991-01-01
description Chinua Achebe is recognized as one of Africa's most important and influential writers, and his novels have focused on the ways in which the European tradition of the novel and African modes of expression relate to each other in both complementary and contesting ways. Achebe's novels are informed by an important theory of writing which tries to mediate the politics of the novel as a form of commentary on the emergence and transformation of nationalism which constitutes the African writer's epistemological context. Achebe's esthetic has been overdetermined by the changing discourse on representation and national identity in colonial and post-colonial Africa. His anxious quest for a post-colonial esthetic is predicated on the belief that narrative can enable the writer to express an alternative order of things opposed to realities imprisoned by imperialism and Western domination.
url http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol15/iss1/4
work_keys_str_mv AT simongikandi chinuaachebeandthepostcolonialestheticwritingidentityandnationalformation
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