Reflections on Cultural Specificity and Dystopian Standardization in Chinua Achebe’s Novels

Abstract

Although tackling Chinua Achebe’s novels as illustrative pieces of postcolonial African literature, this article moves a step further in tracking down the elements projecting these literary texts into universalization. The major aim is to highlight the stylistic differences between the novels making up the African trilogy (Things Fall Apart - 1958, No Longer at Ease - 1960, Arrow of God - 1964) and his subsequent masterpieces A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). If the African trilogy particularly relies on and therefore has been analyzed in terms of culture-specific items and postcolonial issues, the other two novels acquire new dimensions, giving birth to what can be called dystopian standardization characteristic not only of a certain space or time, but of any society fighting corruption and abusive political systems inevitably leading to oppressive regimes, chaos and collapse.