Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart Book

Acknowledgements ix

Notes and references x

Introduction xi

1 Text and contexts 1

The author 3

The text 6

Literary contexts 15

Cultural contexts 22

2 Critical history 35

Introduction and early critical reception 37

Authenticity and the question of universality 39

Nationalist approaches 42

Achebe and African literary language 44

Anthropological approaches 48

Universalism as humanism 52

Nationalist universalist humanism 57

Marxist criticism 62

Feminist approaches 64

The intervention of postcolonial theory 66

Conclusion 75

3 Critical readings 77

Extract from 'The Tragic Conflict in the Novels of Chinua Achebe' Abiola Irele 79

Extract from 'Sophisticated Primitivism: The Syncretism of Oral and Literate Modes in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"' Abdul JanMohamed 85

Extract from 'For Chinua Achebe: The Resilience and the Predicament of Obierika' Biodum Jeyifo 93

'How Could Things Fall Apart For Whom They Were Not Together?' Florence Stratton 104

Extract from 'Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart' Ato Quayson 120

4 Further reading and web resources 129

Notes on contributors 137

Bibliography 138

Index 143