Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Research Articles

Home away from Home: Imageability and Way finding in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck

This essay explores the process of orientation in migratory space in three of the twelve stories that make up Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection The Thing around Your Neck— “Imitation,” “On Monday of Last Week,” and “The Thing around Your Neck”—from the perspective of Kevin Lynch’s theory of wayfinding, developed in his work on urban spaces The Image of the City. The analysis of how gender and class affect the female protagonists’ conceptualization of home is based on Lynch’s notion of imageability. The metaphorical extension of the concepts of imageability and wayfinding aims to grasp migrants’ psychological and emotional experiences of orientation. Taking as a point of reference three highly imageable objects—masks, mirrors, and letters—the study of the protagonists’ wayfinding in America reveals the tension between reality and imagination in the creation of mental images of home. In her recognition of the potential of female agency, Adichie draws a parallel between the protagonists’ reorientation in the exilic space and their reorientation in their intimate relationships.

Voicing Silence: A Postcolonial Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Many African countries have been disposed to colonialism and its consequences on their livelihoods. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi sets the scene for a long battle well known as the Biafran civil war between the Igbo tribe and its counterpart, the Hausa tribe. For two years, both ethnic tribes fought for leadership and dominance, land and its accompanying resources. This ensued into poverty, diaspora, loss of identity, identity reformation, and the deaths of countless Civilians and soldiers. This paper is an attempt to analyse Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's, Half of a Yellow Sun using the post-colonial theory. The study attempts to address the following: the context of the Biafran war, the causes of the Biafran Civil war, how the identity of the Igbo tribe was shaped under the Biafran civil war, specifically, reviewing the lived experiences of major characters within the mentioned novel, namely, Olanna, Richard and Ugwu. This study found that the identity of all three characters under preview has been shaped during the Biafran war and as a result, they have emerged from the war well rooted in their culture.

Stylistic Foregrounding of ‘Silence’ in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

This paper explores Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s use of repetition to foreground silence, a predominant theme in her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus. Since one of the primary concerns of stylistics is to explain the underlying motive of an author’s linguistic choices, the paper discusses Adichie’s choice of the lexical item silence in varied derivative forms (noun, adverb, adjective and verb), the use of its synonym and its incorporation into sentence structures (parallelism). Applying Geoffrey N. Leech’s and Michael H. Short’s notion of foregrounding – deviance from some expected frequency, the paper examines how Adichie strategically repeats her choice of the lexical item without it sounding monotonous. It demonstrates that the choices of these diverse linguistic forms in the presentation of the theme of silence is not accidental but a purposive attempt to bring her message to the forecourt and thereby raise the consciousness of the society to its damaging effect. It also reveals the author’s skilfulness in the manipulation of language.

The Formation and Representation of Identity in the Works of Arundhati Roy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This article delves into the profound insights offered by esteemed authors Arundhati Roy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie regarding the intricate nature of identity. These authors explore different aspects of identity, such as race, gender, culture, and socio-political dynamics, through their unique literary styles. The literary works of Arundhati Roy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offer profound insights into the complexities of post-colonial India, Nigeria, and the African diaspora. Within these narratives, the authors skillfully weave intricate tapestries that illuminate the processes through which identity is both constructed and negotiated. The narratives utilized by the authors incorporate vibrant imagery, intricate character progression, and captivating storytelling methods in order to navigate the intricacies of personal identity. In doing so, they effectively challenge established stereotypes and societal conventions. Moreover, the article underscores the lasting influence of their literary creations on present-day literature, placing particular emphasis on their significant contributions to the realms of representation, diversity, social commentary, intersectionality, and global significance. The narratives of Roy and Adichie persistently resonate with readers, cultivating cross-cultural comprehension and stimulating scholarly dialogues on topics such as identity, power dynamics, and social justice. The enduring literary heritage of these individuals guarantees their position within the literary canon and serves as a source of inspiration for upcoming generations of writers, compelling them to delve into the intricate dimensions of identity within the realm of literature.

Gender and Violence in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, Elena Ferrante’s Tetralogy My Brilliant Friend and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

This paper explores the portrayal of violence and gender in its relation to different historical periods, countries, cultures, and religions. The aim is to determine the role these different aspects have in forming of characters’ identities and more specifically how it is all related to gender. The research will focus on Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, Elena Ferrante’s Tetralogy My Brilliant Friend, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. All three novels, regardless of the different periods they fictionalize and discuss, and the literature they belong to, are connected by the captivating darkness that runs deeply through their fictional fiber and portrays the horrible conditions and struggles women have to go through because of the violence they were succumbed to, but also the violence they have to resort to to survive and even thrive in the ever-changing, but always firmly men’s world. Morrison’s novel is set in the early stages of the slave trade in America when racial, religious, and class tensions were just beginning to form, Ferrante’s tetralogy focuses on the post-WWII Italy, poverty-stricken and violent neighborhoods of the outskirts of Naples, and Purple Hibiscus is set in postcolonial Nigeria, a country struggling with political instability and economic difficulties. All three authors with their respective novels render vibrant pictures of the lives of young girls and grown women, mothers, daughters, and friends, across times, countries, but also classes, that offer plenty of space for comparative research focusing on the presence and role of violence in their lives.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah: Of Hybrid Subjectivity, its Locations and Subverting Potential

This paper looks into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah as a postcolonial text. Using the Bhabhaian constructs of “mimicry,” “hybridity” and “the third space,” this paper argues that Adichie’s narrative portrays how the coming together of cultures induces “mimicry” of the cultural norms of the seemingly dominant culture. Owing to this “mimicry” the mimicking characters develop a “hybrid” identity characterized by “ambivalence.” This paper also argues that the location/ site of mimicry and consequent development of hybrid identity are not conditional upon physical migration, or moving beyond the borders of one’s homeland. The tendency to look up to the supposedly dominant culture can prevail within the confines of natives’ own society as well, which is perhaps an indication of the post-colonial society still reeling under the continued colonial influence. Whatever maybe the location of “hybrid” characters, “ambivalence” invariably crops up in their identity. Although ambivalence indicates being indecisive about one’s identity, and about how one looks at the identity of the other, it might also mean emancipation from the burden of restricting and discriminating categories as exemplified by Adichie’s narrative. In the ambivalent state the hybrid subjects can nurture hopes to rise above the assumed purity of cultures. The native- colonial or white-black nexus in this sense may be understood to have steered away from confrontation, and found a way towards reconciliation.

Farewell to Tensions for Post-independence Algerian and Nigerian Populations: ‘Hybrid Affirmation’ as a Postcolonial Proposition

ABSTRACT Through the novels of Maissa Bey’s Bleu Blanc Vert and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, this article examines the legacy of colonialism on post-imperial societies. Both novels engage with the relationship between culturally hybrid people and their compatriots, who are against the cultural colonial legacy in post-independence Algeria and Nigeria. This article contends that these texts can be interpreted as an appeal to settle tensions vis-à-vis the colonial legacy in post-independence societies, and to create a bond of solidarity between members of the same society. The article examines the social tensions that the culturally hybrid subjects experience in the novels, and proposes the concept of ‘hybrid affirmation’ as a way of coming to terms with the cultural colonial heritage. Although displacement, alienation, and rejection characterise the nature of the everyday life of Algerian and Nigerian post-independence people, affirmation of the self, trust and stability mark the attitude of the culturally hybrid characters by the end of both novels. Such an attitude is defined as the ‘hybrid affirmation’ of the postcolonial individual. The concept of ‘hybrid affirmation’ is intended to eliminate the gap that has long been widened by conflicts about the cultural colonial legacy. ‘Hybrid affirmation’ seeks to reframe postcolonial criticism so that characteristics such as strength and determination become attributed to the postcolonial individual instead of loss, disillusionment and displacement. Finally, ‘Hybrid affirmation’ implies ceasing conflicts about the cultural colonial heritage that exist between members of the same society in Algeria and Nigeria.

Intellectual decolonisation and the danger of epistemic closure: the need for a critical decolonial theory

ABSTRACT This paper draws from the paradigm of Critical Theory (CT) and Decolonial Theory to engage in an introductory discussion on the need for a new methodological paradigm, namely a Critical Decolonial Theory. This is put forward in order to both argue for the imperative of introducing multiple narratives to the philosophical practice of contemporary social critique in South Africa, as well as to provide a cautionary note relating to how the decolonisation narrative itself could become a determinative ideology if it engages in what Lewis Gordon terms “epistemic closure.” While operating from within the framework and ideals of traditional CT and Amy Allen’s subsequent contribution to decolonising CT, we draw specifically from black practitioners of this critical philosophical tradition, namely Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Frantz Fanon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Paulin Hountondji, and Achille Mbembe, in order to localise and ground our discussion of the need to problematise (i.e., consider both vindicatory and subversive aspects of) the decolonisation project.

THE ROLE OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN SHAPING THE THEME OF RACE IN CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S “AMERICANAH”

The article aimed at stylistic study of figurative language and its role in reflecting the theme of race in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah. The article aimed at studying the impressive style of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The researcher used a qualitative approach, besides critical analytical descriptive method. The researcher adopted two theories of Postcolonial Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for the theoretical framework. Some findings of the study are as follows: figurative language plays a great role in reflecting the theme of race in an impressive manner; Chimamanda Adichie uses figurative language in an effective way that reflects race theme vividly. Some recommendations are as follows: introducing teaching of figurative language in all educational stages to produce more future creative African writers; handling race issue in a constructive way that leads to positive outcome when writing literary works that discuss this sensitive theme.
 
 
 

Female Subjectivity and Body Politics in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Zikora

This paper examines the pregnant female body in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Zikora. The protagonist's experiences of loneliness, abandonment and struggle during her pregnancy are situated within diverse socio-political relations, including patriarchy, sexuality, immigrant status, romance, transnational background and generation gaps. Drawing on critical insights from body politics, especially Elaine Scarry's concept of conscious body, Michel Foucault's notion of body discipline and Elizabeth Grosz's phenomenological reading of lived bodies, the analysis explores how the protagonist Adichie challenges the traditional understanding of the female body as a mere biological object. The paper argues that through her bodily experiences, the protagonist gains agency to critique and reassess gender relations and stereotypes. The journey of self-discovery and subjectivity emerges as the protagonist's aching body becomes a window to perceive existing relationships and meanings, resulting in a revitalized understanding of her own body and its significance.

Postcolonial Identity Crisis in Selected Contemporary Novels

The study argues that postcolonial novels can offer valuable insights into the nature of identity and the challenges of living in a postcolonial world. Homi Bhabha's theoretical framework is used in this study to analyze the complexities of cultural identity and the challenges that actors face as they navigate between their background and new cultural identities. The concept of hybridity, mimicry, and cultural difference developed by Bhabha are utilized to examine and comprehend these themes. It explains how novels such as Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie emphasize the contradictions between cultural hybridity and the need to adhere to mainstream cultural standards. The study also looks at the role of literature in developing our perception of cultural identity and encouraging empathy and understanding across cultures. The study employs an analytic approach for evaluating the postcolonial identity crisis in chosen contemporary novels, which entails an in-depth reading and analysis of the text. This may imply identifying essential themes and motifs relating to identity, cultural hybridity, and colonialism, as well as investigating how characters manage their sense of self in the face of cultural diversity. The study's findings emphasize the necessity of comprehending and appreciating the complexities of cultural identity in the context of globalization. It promotes constant postcolonial debate and reflection on identity as we confront the problems of cultural hybridity and try to build a more inclusive and just society that acknowledges and respects cultural differences. As a result, this study adds to our knowledge of postcolonial identity and its continuing importance within modern literature

Exploring Bibliotherapy as Psychological intervention for law undergraduates: A look at Autobiographies in a Library setting

Undergraduate Law Students training is organized in such a way that they can multi-task through diverse activities ranging from classroom discussions, understanding the principles of law and mastering legal arguments, participating in mock and moot trial, clinical legal education and studying. These activities make them become better lawyers after graduation however they have also become challenges documented to lead to psychological trauma for some students. Extensive literature review, content analysis as well as interview methods were used. The conceptual framework of the study was based on analysis of 3 Autobiographies and literature review. Autobiographies by Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were selected. They are: “Where is your Wrapper”, “Speaking above a whisper” and “We should all be Feminist”. Texts from these autobiographies that answered the research questions were selected for annotations; they providence research evidence showing that autobiographies can be used as bibliotherapy intervention in handling psychological trauma that could arouse from activities in law faculty environment. A structured interview carried out on a medical doctor (director) in a government hospital, when placed in juxtaposition with results of literature review, showed that law environment is not the only stressor to undergraduate law students. Background factors to each student were also found to contribute to psychological trauma in law environment. Hence it was concluded that bibliotherapy was essential intervention technique for undergraduate law students. It was further shown that academic law libraries can be a medium of bibliotherapy intervention for law undergraduates.

Traducción, comparatismo y ética. El problema de las identidades de género en la literatura nigeriana (traducida)

In this article, we intend to examine the relationship between ethics, comparative literary and translation studies (Bassnett, 1993; Bassnett & Lefevere, 1992; Berman, 1985 and Venuti, 1995/ 2018). In this sense, we evaluate the theoretical trajectory of two literary figures belonging to different periods, the Nigerian male writer Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) and the Nigerian woman writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977-) in their efforts to deconstruct an image of Africa that is seen embodied in “Colonialist Criticism” (1988) and “The Danger of A Single Story” (2018). In a complementary fashion, we explore the way in which the first generation of African male writers, in which Achebe is registered, and the third generation of contemporary African women writers, to which Adichie is associated, build figures of women and men in the narrative. Finally, we present different perspectives that address the way of ethically translating postcolonial, diasporic and translingual literature in which the works of Achebe and Adichie are framed (Federici & Fortunati, 2019; Ergun, 2021; Tissot, 2017; Vidal Claramonte, 2021).

AFRO-INDIAN CROSS-CULTURAL IDENTITY IN HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

Cross-cultural associations provide important insights which become the basis of common cultural ties and universal peace. The narrative of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun presents cross-cultural commonalities with Indian cultural ethos. The narrative reveals several cultural parallels between Indian and African traditions, culture and history. This research paper attempts to study the cross-cultural ties between Indian and African cultural heritage as revealed in the narrative of The Half of a Yellow Sun.

Decolonized Trauma: Narrative, Memory and Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract Even though literary works serve as excellent media for bearing witness to trauma, postcolonial and diasporic literary texts are often dismissed for their falsified accounts of traumatic life experiences. Recent studies on African American literature have stressed the need for a decolonized conceptualization of trauma that would not only disrupt the long-existing white Global Northern perspectives but also recognize feelings of empathy and solidarity among members of the community in these literary corpora. The present study adopts a hybrid analytical framework to examine the representations of trauma in the Nigerian American writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013). Specifically, we draw upon Gérard Genette’s narrative levels, Ron Eyerman’s collective memory, and Jeffrey Charles Alexander’s collective identity to argue that the novel defies conventional forms of narrative by depicting postcolonial and diasporic identities as volatile and dynamic constructs. The findings indicate the multiple ways in which the story presents diasporic Africans – that is, the female protagonist Ifemelu and her male lover Obinze – as capable of overcoming the adverse effects of traumatic memories by chronicling an authentic record of their experiences. The study also reveals that the leading female character, like the novelist Adichie, creates an empowering platform for migrants of various ethnicities to speak up about their traumatic experiences, and thereby establish what is called ‘cross-cultural solidarity’ in reconstructing a new community.

Once Upon a Time in Biafra: War Time Caucus, Hate Crime and Ethnic Violence in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

A study of wartime literature also serves the function of documenting and preserving the stories and key experiences which the victims have witnessed through their forbearance in such events. While hate crime, caste conflicts, communal violence and ethnic violence are indispensable discourses in the study of criminal justice system, a parallel study of hate crime and ethnic violence through the kaleidoscope of contemporary Nigerian literature would be equally influencing. For any civil war, citing one cataclysmic reason is never justifiable. In the late 1960s the political and social climate in a multi- ethnic country like Nigeria was brimming with religious and tribal differences, the immediate reason that triggered the unfortunate civil war in Nigeria was ‘hate speech’ of the political leaders and military commanders. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a third-generation Nigerian woman writer reminisces this civil war through her novel Half of A Yellow Sun (2006) in which the scarring memoirs of genocide, war time rapes, ransacking of houses and property, mass killings, forced conscription and forced prostitution of young girls are captured with the intent to highlight the menacing minds of war driven humans. It is true that Hate crime is more destructive and dangerous when it finds such secessionist atmosphere as would ignite ethnic violence and deeper still into a full-blown civil war. Through this paper an evaluation and analyses of the hate crime during the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War would come under scrutiny through the literary promontory of Nigerian novel Half of A Yellow Sun.

Unmasking the Red Death: Introduction

During the so-called High Lockdown in the UK (March to June 2020) a group of staff and students from University College London’s School of European Languages and Cultures (SELCS) gathered weekly for a Summer Book Club (SBC) to discuss works as diverse as Thomas Mann’s epic tale of convalescence and philosophical exploration The Magic Mountain and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s captivating comparison of the experience of race in Nigeria, the UK, and the US in Americanah. Among the true “pandemic-lit” that we chose to focus on was Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”. In discussing this tale, we could not help noticing the parallels between ourselves and Prince Prospero and his courtiers, who—in the face of devastating disease sweeping the realm—devoted themselves to aesthetic pleasures within their castellated abbey, just as we too found refuge in (closed) community and culture. Another of our book choices revealed a similar and uncanny parallel: in Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven a band of actors and musicians roam a devastated America, putting on Shakespeare for the survivors of another deadly pandemic. Their motto, “Because survival is not sufficient”, a quotation from Star Trek, chimed with our sense too that, in the face of the pandemic, culture had a central role.

Transculturalism, diaspora and otherness: the quest for a home in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s americana

This paper aims to re-evaluate the role of otherness, the true keystone of Americanah which invites to wonder if it might not be at the origin of certain limits that appear in transculturalism. The places most likely to welcome transculturalism in Western societies come across as culture places, where dominant norms are challenged to include otherness. This study reveals that transculturality facilitates African Diasporas circulation and delineates a field of identifications with hybrid status. Therefore, hybridity can generate discomfort and a loss of the feeling of being at home. Suffocation, confinement, the disturbingly familiar strangers are all reasons that tarnish transculturalism representations by underlining its limits, which seep into homes that lose ability to offer shelter. The function of home to provide protection is then deterritorialised in relationships or in professional spaces. The analysis suggests that transculturalism stumbling block is not so much otherness than othering, that is to say the imposition of another identity on someone based on appearance, ethnic, cultural background, or sex identity dimensions. Thus, from otherness to othering, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as a transcultural Nigerian female writer, reveals that alienation corrodes transcultural characters and generates positive opening discussions and meetings around new postcolonial relations.

Transgressive body in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

In a society where colour is a major reason for social stratification, the black identity is burdened with the perceived negativities generated by its colour. This reality becomes conspicuous in a space defined by racial superiority and migrant status. In Americanah, unlike her other novels, Adichie migration concerns are more profound to reflect the perception and intense consequences of racial identity for African migrants and black people in the West. Through a close reading of this text from a postcolonial view, this article contends that the migrant status and blackness of African subjects, represented in physical attributes, expose their bearer to racial prejudice. This article further argues that to be integrated and access racial privileges, African migrants must suppress or eliminate the racial burdens attached to blackness by transforming or modifying their identity. Such modification evoked by a transgression is accompanied by a loss of identity.Contribution: The most outstanding feature of this article is the exploration of the interface between transgression, body and space in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s (2013) Americanah. This article contributes to the growing discourse on transgression, racism and African migrants’ realities and examine the concerns of black people regarding colour politics through intercontinental migration. This article further seeks to address significant questions about the way race influences the cultural attitude of minority groups and how black immigrants react to racial Othering.

The African as Compared to European and American Film Adaptation: Some African Techniques of Film Adaptation from Novels

Adaptation study is a sub-branch of comparative literature that makes the bond between literature and cinema. Both literature and cinema are two different media and each has its own language to convey meaning. This article studies the African techniques of film adaptation from novels such as <i>Half of a Yellow Sun</i> by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Biyi Bandele’s film in 2013 with the same title. With the advancement of technology, people are gradually shifting from the culture of reading novels to that of watching adapted films, which becomes a problem, as it tends to affect their knowledge of that particular text. Thus, how does the African filmmaker, as compared to other European and American filmmakers, leave from the novel to the film? The hypothesis to this question is that there is a number of pure African techniques that the filmmaker uses in the adaptation of the novel such as editing, sound, modified scenes, excluded scenes and invented scenes. The elements of this study are analysed using the Film Adaptation Theory based on Linda Hutcheon approach and the Film Analysis Method, which is a pure qualitative method. The findings of this study show that, the visual and aural techniques used by the filmmaker are all involved to create a film with a new vision having specific effects on the audience. There is therefore a difference between a novel and a film so; depending solely on the film adaptation to get the meaning embedded in the novel is erroneous.