Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language, Online ISSN 2348-3083, SJ IMPACT FACTOR 2021: 7.278, www.srjis.com PEER REVIEWED & REFEREED JOURNAL, OCT-NOV, 2022, VOL-10/54
READING CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AS A POSTCOLONIAL NOVEL Tripti Bhati Research Scholar
Paper Received On: 25 NOV 2022 Peer Reviewed On: 30 NOV 2022 Published On: 1 DEC 2022
Abstract Postcolonial Literature is a body of literary writings that react to the discourse of colonization. It is written by natives of formerly colonized countries. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an African novel set in the precolonial past. It was written in the 1950s when the colonial rule in many African countries began to collapse. Through this novel Achebe intends to prepare the natives of colonized countries for self-rule by making them realize that Africans did not learn to be civilized from their colonizers, they had their way of life before everything was snatched away from them. This paper attempts to highlight the indigenous culture of the Igbo community before colonization as depicted in the novel and the effects of colonization on the people. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, we will look at the cultural aspects of the precolonial Igbo community, and in the second part, we will look at the beginning of colonization in Igboland and its adverse impacts on people. Keywords: Postcolonial; Colonization; African novel; Culture; Language; Decolonization.
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After the Second World War, European countries no longer remained the power center, leading to the beginning of decolonization throughout Asia and Africa. Due to this sudden historical shift, people were anxious about how they would manage their country after the colonizers had left. Nigerians were colonized for more than a hundred years during which, like all other colonized people, they were conditioned that they were uncivilized and incapable of self-rule. Things Fall Apart (1958), the debut novel of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, is an attempt to reassert African identity. According to Achebe, colonial rule over a century in Nigeria had destabilized indigenous culture to such an extent that people could no longer relate themselves to Igbo traditions and imitate the culture of Britain. Achebe was appalled at the indignation of Africans in colonial novels like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joyce Copyright © 2022, Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language