Understanding Things Fall Apart: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents

by Kalu Ogbaa

Overview

Things Fall Apart is the most widely read and influential African novel. Published in 1958, it has sold more than eight million copies and been translated into fifty languages. African culture is not familiar to most American readers however, and this casebook provides a wealth of commentary and original materials that place the novel in its historical, social, and cultural contexts. Ogbaa, an Igbo scholar, has selected a wide variety of historical and firsthand accounts of Igbo history and cultural heritage. These accounts illuminate the historical context and issues relating to the colonization of Africa by European powers, in particular Britain's colonization of Nigeria. Fascinating materials bring to light the novel's cultural context—folkways, language and narrative customs, and traditional Igbo religion. Among the documents included are a slave narrative, interviews, jourbanal and magazine articles, and historical essays. Each chapter is followed by questions for class discussion and ideas for student paper topics. A selection of maps and photos of Igbo culture complement the text.

Following a literary analysis, historical documents trace the European powers' partition of Africa and the creation and colonization of Nigeria, home of the Igbo people. Several chapters on Igbo cultural harmony feature materials that explain the Igbo view of the world of humans and the world of the spirits, Igbo language, and traditional Igbo religion and material customs. Selections on the African novelists' novel place Things Fall Apart in the context of African literature and emphasize the difference between African and Western elements of fiction. A concluding chapter examines the debate on writing African novels in ex-colonizers' languages. This casebook will greatly enhance the reader's appreciation of the novel and understanding of Igbo history, society, culture, and civilization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313302947
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/30/1999
Series:	The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1400L (what's this?)

About the Author

KALU OGBAA, an Igboman scholar, is professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University, where he teaches Africana (African, African American, and Afro-Caribbean) and American literatures. He is the editor of The Gong and the Flute: African Literary Development and Celebration (Greenwood, 1994), and the author of Gods, Oracles and Divination: Folkways in Chinua Achebe's Novels (1992), Igbo (1965), as well as numerous articles on African and Commonwealth literatures.

Table of Contents

Introduction
A Literary Analysis of Things Fall Apart
Historical Context I: The Scramble for and Partition of Africa
Historical Context II: The Creation and Colonization of Nigeria
Cultural Harmony I: Igboland, the World of Humans and the World of Spirits
Cultural Harmony II: Igbo Language and Narrative Customs
Cultural Harmony III: Traditional Igbo Religion and Material Customs
Things Fall Apart: The African Novelists' Novel
Things Fall Apart and the Language Choice Debate
Glossary
Index

Editorial Reviews

Igbo scholar Ogbaa compiles commentary and original materials to construct social and cultural contexts for Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958), the most widely read and influential African novel. He includes a wide variety of historical and firsthand accounts of the Igbo historical and cultural heritage, illuminating issues relating to the British colonization of Nigeria. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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