Chinua Achebe
.jpg)
Chinua Achebe, 2008 by Stuart C. Shapiro, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Born: November 16, 1930
Nationality: Nigerian
Activities: Novelist, Poet, Professor
Literary Periods:
- Postwar Period
- Twentieth Century
Literary Movements:
- 20th Century Postcolonialism
Literary Criticism
Interviews
Find an interview with Chinua Achebe in The Paris Review, "The Art of Fiction, no. 134, winter 1994
Things Fall Apart
|
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart, the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world... -- W.B. Yeats, "The Second Coming," 1920 |
2006 edition; 1st published, 1958 |
 |
Essays on the life and works of Chinua Achebe, complete works and suggested reading bibliographies.
You'll also want to check out...
- Literature Resource CenterIncludes entries from Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Twayne's Authors Series, and Scribner Writers Series
- Literature Online (LION)Biographical overview, complete bibliography, journal articles, audio & video recordings, and recommended Web sites
Research & Criticism
Find books, essays and journal articles in MLA International Bibliography
MLA International Bibliography is the definitive literary research database, indexing the most authoritative scholarship on Chinua Achebe from books and academic journals. MLA indexes and links to the entire JSTOR literary research collection as well as linking to many other full-text providers.
Jamaica Kincaid : a critical companion (1999) by
With the publication of her novel Annie John in 1985, Jamaica Kincaid entered the ranks of the best novelists of her generation. Her three autobiographical novels, Annie John, Lucy, and Autobiography of My Mother, and collection of short stories, At the Bottom of the River, touch on the universal theme of coming-of-age and the female adolescent's need to sever her ties to her mother. This angst is couched in the social landscape of post-colonial Antigua, a small Caribbean island whose legacy of racism affects Kincaid's protagonists. Her fiction rewrites the history of the Caribbean from a West Indies perspective and this milieu colors the experiences of her characters. Following a biographical chapter, Paravisini-Gebert traces the development of Kincaid's craft as a writer. Each of the novels and the collection of short stories is discussed in a separate chapter that includes sections on plot, character, theme, and an alternate critical approach from which to read the novel, such as feminist. A complete primary and secondary bibliography and lists of selected reviews of Kincaid's work complete the study.
Call Number: Colby PR9275.A583 K566 1999ISBN: 0313302952
- Criticism and IntepretationColby Catalog Subject Search: Achebe, Chinua
- Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new windowA database of English-language literature, containing thousands of full-text works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, as well as journals, author biographies, bibliographies, criticism, and reference resources.
- Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowDatabase providing full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every time period and literary discipline.
- Humanities International Index This link opens in a new windowA bibliographic index of over 1,700 U.S. and international journals in the humanities, covering articles, essays, reviews, and creative work in poetry, fiction, and visual arts.
Books from CBBcat
Home and Exile (2000) by
Chinua Achebe is Africa's most prominent writer, the author of Things Fall Apart, the best known--and best selling--novel ever to come out of Africa. His fiction and poetry burn with a passionate commitment to political justice, bringing to life not only Africa's troubled encounters withEurope but also the dark side of contemporary African political life. Now, in Home and Exile, Achebe reveals the man behind his powerful work.Here is an extended exploration of the European impact on African culture, viewed through the most vivid experience available to the author--his own life. It is an extended snapshot of a major writer's childhood, illuminating his roots as an artist. Achebe discusses his English education andthe relationship between colonial writers and the European literary tradition. He argues that if colonial writers try to imitate and, indeed, go one better than the Empire, they run the danger of undervaluing their homeland and their own people. Achebe contends that to redress the inequities ofglobal oppression, writers must focus on where they come from, insisting that their value systems are as legitimate as any other. Stories are a real source of power in the world, he concludes, and to imitate the literature of another culture is to give that power away.Home and Exile is a moving account of an exceptional life. Achebe reveals the inner workings of the human conscience through the predicament of Africa and his own intellectual life. It is a story of the triumph of mind, told in the words of one of this century's most gifted writers.
Call Number: Miller PR9387.9.A3 Z467 2000ISBN: 0195135067
Collected Poems (2004) by
"The father of African literature in the English language and undoubtedly one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century." --Caryl Phillips, The Observer Chinua Achebe's award-winning poems are marked by a subtle richness and the political acuity and moral vision that are a signature of all of his work. Focused and powerful, and suffused with wisdom and compassion, Collected Poems is further evidence of this great writer's sublime gifts and it is an essential part of the oeuvre of a giant of world literature.
Call Number: Miller PR9387.9.A3 A17 2004ISBN: 1400076587
Arrow of God (2016) by
"My favorite novel." --Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "A magical writer--one of the greatest of the twentieth century." --Margaret Atwood "African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe." --Toni Morrison The second novel in Chinua Achebe's masterful African trilogy, following Things Fall Apart and preceding No Longer at Ease When Things Fall Apart ends, colonial rule has been introduced to Umuofia, and the character of the nation, its values, freedoms, religious and socio-political foundations have substantially and irrevocably been altered. Arrow of God, the second novel in Chinua Achebe's The African Trilogy, moves the historical narrative forward. This time, the action revolves around Ezeulu, the headstrong chief priest of the god Ulu, which is worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. The novel is a meditation on the nature, uses, and responsibility of power and leadership. Ezeulu finds that his authority is increasingly under threat from rivals within his nation and functionaries of the newly established British colonial government. Yet he sees himself as untouchable. He is forced, with tragic consequences, to reconcile conflicting impulses in his own nature--a need to serve the protecting deity of his Umuaro people; a desire to retain control over their religious observances; and a need to gain increased personal power by pushing his authority to the limits. He ultimately fails as he leads his people to their own destruction, and consequently, his personal tragedy arises. Arrow of God is an unforgettable portrayal of the loss of faith, and the downfall of a man in a society forever altered by colonialism.
Call Number: Bowdoin PR9387.9.A3 A8 1989ISBN: 0385014805
