Chinua Achebe And The Survival Of Traditional African Culture

Chinua Achebe, who has been called"the father of modern African writing", is a Nigerian novelist, poet, and literary critic. Achebe's works play a crucial role in the history of African literature and they capture the key moments of African history from the beginning of colonialism to post-colonial period. His major novels are located at the point of contact between traditional African culture and European culture and concerned with the consequences of this encounter. This thesis, by reading Chinua Achebe's three novels, Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), analyzes Achebe's disapproval of obstinate defending, hybridizing and westernizing traditional African culture during the cultural conflict. This thesis also explores the author's view of selective absorption of the two cultures for the postcolonial African countries to survive and develop their own national culture.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One includes a brief introduction to Chinua Achebe and his literary career, and a literature review of the three texts selected in this thesis. Chapter Two is a review of the pre-colonial African culture in Things Fall Apart and an analysis of Okonkwo's failure in defending the traditional African culture at the beginning of European colonialism. Chapter Three deals with the hybridization of the two cultures in the soon-to-be independent African countries in No Longer at Ease and the hero Obi's double consciousness, which results in his final destruction. Chapter Four explores the damage and danger in postcolonial African countries caused by their leaders'subordination to western culture in Anthills of the Savannah. Chapter Five concludes Achebe's disapproval of the three ways of treating traditional African culture discussed in the preceding chapters and continues to explore the author's view of selective absorption of both African and European cultures for the postcolonial African countries to survive and develop their own national culture.